Gary Neville has had to backtrack on some of his more misguided pre-season Premier League predictions, but there’s one to which he’s sticking rigidly.
At the outset of the campaign, the ex-Manchester United defender backed his former club to finish third, two places ahead of Liverpool, and plumped for Arsenal as his title winners.
On Monday Night Football for Sky Sports, he and Jamie Carragher revisited their August forecasts and made a few alterations, with Neville now admitting that he can’t see the Red Devils even salvaging a top-six finish.
However, despite Arne Slot’s Reds being eight points clear at the top of the Premier League, he refused to budge on his initial prediction that the Gunners will be crowned champions.
The pundit explained: “Liverpool are massive favourites and they’re in great form, but there’s still a long way to go. Arsenal have been through the mill the last couple of years. They’ve gone to the wire and sometimes when you win your first title it doesn’t happen in the most expected way. Things can happen.”
He added: “I think Arsenal have got a resilience to them. They’ve got a back four that can hold it together and get through games, and I do think they’ll attack better in the second half of the season.
“I think they’ll hang in there and if they can just get close towards the end, it could be that they hunt Liverpool down. That’s what I’m hoping for!”
When asked what could ‘derail’ Liverpool in their title pursuit, Neville replied that the loss of Virgil van Dijk to injury might prove fatal for the Reds.
We imagine that LFC fans would’ve been smiling to themselves at the Sky Sports pundit sticking by his pre-season prediction for Arsenal to win the Premier League, which was made with a smug grin.
Of course Liverpool’s current lead isn’t insurmountable – this time six years ago we had a seven-point advantage over Manchester City and they pipped us by a point in the final reckoning – and the Reds will inevitably have a couple of slip-ups in the months ahead.
We think Neville makes a fair point regarding Van Dijk, who’d be an enormous loss if (heaven forbid) he were to pick up a lengthy injury, particularly when we’re already threadbare at centre-back with Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez sidelined.
However, we’ve already overcome several injuries this season (including Alisson Becker’s two-month absence) to pick up 45 points from a possible 54 and have the scope to withstand a couple of defeats and still remain top of the table.
It’s not a done deal by any stretch, but right now you’d have to make Liverpool strong favourites to dethrone Man City as Premier League champions, just as they did in 2020.
The post ‘What I’m hoping for…’ – Neville smugly sticks with pre-season shout which’ll amuse Liverpool fans appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.
