Chelsea look exhausted already, says Neville

Chelsea's players need to "give themselves a slap around the face" after their poor start to the season, says Gary Neville.

The reigning Premier League champions lost 2-1 at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday in Jose Mourinho's 100th top-flight home game in charge of the club.

Chelsea have now earned just four points from their opening four games, winning once, and Sky Sports expert Neville believes there are serious concerns at Stamford Bridge.

"Incredible credit to Crystal Palace, but the focus will be on Chelsea," he told Super Sunday.

"We refused to believe on Monday Night Football a couple of weeks ago that there were big problems, that it was just a bad start to the season.

Gary Neville believes Chelsea’s players need a hard look at themselves after their performances in the Premier League so far this season Gary Neville believes Chelsea’s players need a hard look at themselves after their performances in the Premier League so far this season

"But I have to say that, listening to Jose Mourinho after the game saying how concerned he was, I'd be concerned now.

"The players need to give themselves a slap around the face.

"I don't know what it is at this moment in time, but I think the international break has come at a good time for Chelsea. It'll allow them all just to get away and reassess what's going on."

Only Blackburn in 1995/96 have had a worse start to their title defence after four games, and the Blues are already eight points adrift of Manchester City after Manuel Pellegrini's men beat Watford to make it four wins from four.

Neville believes the players look far more tired than they should this early in a season, and says it is "inexcusable" if they can't motivate themselves to defend their title.

"They look absolutely knackered – they look absolutely shot to pieces," he added.

"We talked about Manchester City last season when they were champions, not being able to get themselves back up for it again.

The Sunday Supplement panel discuss Chelsea's unimpressive start to the season The Sunday Supplement panel discuss Chelsea's unimpressive start to the season

"That's inexcusable to me – the idea that your desire wilts and waves. It cannot happen.

"You have your summer off, you come back and you go again. You have to put in the same amount of effort. What makes you think that, just because you've won the championship, you can relax and do things differently?

"They're doing things differently, they're not behaving well as players with respect to their performances.

"It's a great achievement by Alan Pardew – it's no mean feat doing what he's just done. But Jose Mourinho needs to sort them out."