Gary Neville has made a U-turn on his top-four predictions for the Premier League, after only a couple of months earlier he came up with a bizarre claim that his former side Manchester United will finish second, above title contenders Arsenal. The former full-back had predicted City to topple the Gunners to the title and United blowing another dent to the north Londoners by finishing above them in the second.
However, Neville had had a change of mind now as he believes Manchester United will just do enough to finish inside the top four, further backing Newcastle United to qualify for the Champions League. The Magpies would ultimately lose ground in the top four race, he had earlier predicted.
Neville drops down Manchester United to fourth place finish after Newcastle resurgence
With only a few games left in the season, Newcastle United are back in the driver’s seat of the Premier League top-four race after a string of good results which saw them Manchester United at home, and West Ham and Brentford away. However, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Tottenham Hotspur are still vying for the final two positions now that Arsenal and Manchester City have all but locked up their spots in the top four.
Neville made the prediction that Newcastle United will place third this season when speaking on the Sky Sports podcast. He stated:
“What a week for Newcastle. To beat Manchester United, West Ham away and then Brentford away that’s a tough week and to get nine points – that’s a brilliant performance. I didn’t have them down as top-four probably three weeks ago and even after the [Manchester] United game, I thought ‘well they’ve got three tough away games now in West Ham, Brentford and Aston Villa’.
“You’ll probably drop points in that and it will give Tottenham and Liverpool maybe a chance. But looking at them now, watching them closely against Manchester United where I thought they were absolutely brilliant, I think they will finish in the top-four now because their confidence will be so high. I thought Man United were really poor against Newcastle. But what we’ve seen with this side under Erik ten Hag is that they do respond and they do bounce back.
“They were dominant against Everton but beating Brentford was really important. Six points from that week doesn’t look so bad now. They do respond and come back which will mean they do finish in those Champions League places. With Tottenham, they were pretty fortunate against Brighton. But it gives them a chance, they’re still in it.”
While the title race is down to the wire between Arsenal and Manchester City, the top-four battle is equally fired up. Heavyweights Liverpool and Chelsea face a real prospect of losing out on Champions League qualifications, whereas there could be new faces from the Premier League in Europe with the likes of Brighton, Aston Villa and Brentford chasing the Europa and Conference League spots.