Gary Neville has predicted a new Premier League top-four as Manchester United climb up the table and Chelsea falter.
Arsenal’s best ever start to a league season has seen them storm to the top of the table, two points above Manchester City.
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Tottenham remain third despite losing two of their last three matches, while Newcastle United have surprised many to join the battle for a top-four place.
Manchester United have gone 10 league games without defeat to move to fifth, above Chelsea who have picked up only two points since October 16 and suffered a 4-1 defeat to Graham Potter’s former side Brighton at the weekend.
Fulham have not just eased their relegation fears but excited supporters at Craven Cottage to sit seventh after 13 matches, while Brighton remain in the top-eight despite a recent wobble under Roberto De Zerbi.
Liverpool – who finished second last campaign, reached the Champions League final and won two domestic trophies – are languishing down in eighth after a disappointing start to the 2022-23 campaign under Jurgen Klopp.
Giving his revised top-four prediction, Neville told Daily Mirror: ‘Manchester City are guaranteed obviously and I think Tottenham will get in there. I want to say Arsenal and I think they will be.
‘I think this season will be split into two and I think you’ll see a momentum change and a shift at some point in the season. It will just completely change at some point – not at the top mind, I think Man City will run away with it.
‘But I think Liverpool will come back. We’ve not seen Chelsea, what are they going to do, are they going to hang in there? Are Arsenal going to hang in there? Tottenham, I don’t think they will fade away.
‘I think it will become a right tangle and a right mess come February, March and I think the business end of the season will look completely different to how it looks today.
Gary Neville’s top-six prediction
Manchester City
Arsenal
Tottenham
Manchester United
Chelsea
Liverpool
‘So I will go Man City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Man United, and I think Chelsea and Liverpool will just miss out.
‘But to be honest with you, this idea that Arsenal will definitely get top four, I don’t go along with that yet personally.
‘I think they have got to prove it towards the end of the season, even though I’ve loved watching them at the moment and they’ve been brilliant.’
The Premier League returns this weekend with leaders Arsenal travelling to Chelsea, Manchester City hosting Fulham, bottom-placed Nottingham Forest facing Brentford and struggling Liverpool taking on Tottenham.
