Gary Neville believes it is "too early" for Chelsea to be fighting for the Premier League title this season.
The Blues are in third place after the opening 13 matches of the season, where they are level on points with Arsenal in second and nine below Liverpool at the top. Sunday afternoon's comfortable victory over Aston Villa saw Chelsea climb above Manchester City, last season's champions, who have now fallen out of the top four, with Brighton in fourth place as it stands.
Despite Chelsea's highly impressive season to date, Neville feels as if it is too early to be talking about a title challenge at Stamford Bridge. "It feels too early for Chelsea, that's why I don't put them level with Arsenal even though they're on the same number of points," Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.
"It doesn't feel like Chelsea will go on and win it. I still think it's going to be Arsenal if anyone does catch Liverpool. But Chelsea are having a fantastic season. Maresca has got stability there which has been hard to find recently.
"So well done to them, I watched bits of them [vs Aston Villa]. The Cole Palmer goal was absolutely brilliant, absolutely wonderful."
Neville continued: "Chelsea are doing really well so well done to the manager for bringing that level of calmness because it's been mad and chaotic over the last few seasons. For the first time in a while it feels like it's settled down, so well done to Maresca and well done to the players.
"The owners will feel a little bit more calm at this moment in time. But I don't feel that they're in the title race, I don't sense that really."
Enzo Maresca tends to agree with Neville. The Blues head coach, who has won seven of his opening 13 matches in the Premier League, has been asked on several occasions on what his side can achieve this season but has continuously played down suggestions his team will be battling with the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal come May.
Speaking after Sunday's win at Stamford Bridge, Maresca said: "I do not agree with that [Chelsea being title contenders]. We are not ready to compete with Liverpool, Arsenal and City for many reasons.
"Because we won today, I am not going to change my idea. We are not ready for that. The good thing is we are improving. Soon, hopefully we can be there."
Chelsea travel down to Southampton on Wednesday evening as they look to make it four wins on the bounce in all competitions. Meanwhile, Liverpool go to Newcastle United, Arsenal host Manchester United and Manchester City take on Nottingham Forest - all on the same night.
However, Chelsea will have to take on the challenge at St Mary's without defender Wesley Fofana. The France international limped off at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon after 60 minutes and Maresca confirmed after the game that the centre-back has suffered a hamstring injury.
"Unfortunately it is bad news," the Chelsea head coach explained on Fofana. "A hamstring problem. These kind of things usually require three, four, five weeks. In this moment, we lose him for 10 or 12 games. In the way he was playing, it's a big loss for us but we have more players and we can find a solution."
He added: "It's a big loss, it's a big loss. He is doing fantastic but it is normal when you play this amount of games. Fortunately it was his first injury of the season but we will find a solution."
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