Gary Neville believes Chelsea have made an ‘excellent’ signing in Saul Niguez who will enable them to challenge on all fronts this campaign.
The Spanish midfielder joined the club on a season-long loan deal from Atletico Madrid with the option to sign permanently on transfer deadline day.
Manchester United and Barcelona were also linked with a move for the player who now hopes to play consistently in midfield after falling out of favour under Diego Simeone.
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Thomas Tuchel now boasts the midfield options of N’Golo Kante, Kovacic, Jorginho and Saul with Neville impressed with Chelsea’s business after the signing of Romelu Lukaku.
‘Saul is just another excellent player,’ Neville told Sky Sports. ‘He’s got massive experience at the top of La Liga, massive experience in the Champions League and at international level.
‘That’s Chelsea’s model and you look at what they’ve done in this transfer window in terms of ins and outs and again, it’s been another exemplary performance from them.
‘They are a strong team. I’ve watched them twice already this season, away at Arsenal and away at Anfield.
‘That is a really good team, a team that wins and is ready to win more. When they went down to 10 men at Anfield, I never really thought it was going to be easy for Liverpool to break Chelsea down in the second half.
‘That’s when you know you are playing against a good team because that’s the toughest place to play.
‘And the addition of Saul along with Romelu Lukaku makes them stronger and stronger and stronger. In the midfield with Jorginho, N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic they already look really strong.
‘You only need two in there with the way they play but Saul’s addition means they can challenge on all fronts. It strengthens them enormously and makes them more formidable than they were at Anfield last Saturday.’
