Manchester United legend Gary Neville updates Premier League top-four prediction
Former Manchester United and England defender Gary Neville has altered his Premier League top-four prediction.
While Arsenal and Manchester City battle it out for the championship, numerous teams are trying to fill the two remaining Champions League slots.
Newcastle United are presently third having won five games in a row, while Manchester United occupy fourth following straight victory over Brentford and Everton.
Spurs are just three points behind Newcastle and Man United but Aston Villa have experienced a stunning breakthrough under Unai Emery to move to sixth.
Brighton and – to a lesser extent Liverpool – also have top-four hopes ahead of the closing stages of the 2022-23 campaign.
Neville projected Newcastle would lose out on Champions League football last month but has revised his mind on Eddie Howe’s team and now thinks they will join Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal in the final top-four rankings.
‘What a week for Newcastle,’ he stated on his Sky Sports podcast. ‘To win Manchester United, West Ham away and then Brentford away that’s a tough week and to gain nine points – that’s a wonderful performance.
I didn’t have them down as top-four maybe three weeks ago and even after the [Manchester] United game, I felt “well they’ve got three tough away games now in West Ham, Brentford and AstonVilla.
‘You’ll probably drop points in that and it will offer Tottenham and Liverpool maybe a chance.
‘But looking at them now, watching them attentively against Manchester United when I felt they were absolutely outstanding, I think they will finish in the top-four now because their confidence will be so high.
‘I felt Man United were absolutely awful 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 dominating against Everton but winning Brentford was absolutely essential. Six points from that week doesn’t appear so awful today.
‘They do respond and come back which will guarantee they do finish in the Champions League spots.
‘With Tottenham, they were fairly lucky against Brighton. But it gives them a shot, they’re still in it.’
