Gary Neville claims Manchester United will finish second in the Premier League, above Arsenal

The title race in the Premier League this season has seen the reintroduction of one side who has not challenged for a league title in over seven years: Arsenal.

Currently sat eight points clear at the top of the table, Arsenal have been setting the pace for the rest of the Premier League to catch up, with the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United playing catch-up from day one.

However, Gary Neville predicts that they will not finish top of the league as City will find their form and simply bulldoze their way to the top, much to his dismay. Neville does, however, admit that he would rather see Arsenal win the league than City because it would be a fantastic advert for the Premier League.

When asked on if he thinks Arsenal will end the season Premier League champions on Sky Sports, Neville’s answer was simple: “No – but I said Leicester would win the league. They won’t win the league. Manchester City will win the league, and I think Manchester United will finish second.

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“I know that will annoy Arsenal fans and it’s annoyed them all season, and do you know something? I’d rather have Arsenal win the league than Manchester City. I think it would be absolutely sensational for the Premier League.

“If you think about watching the Premier League, we’ve seen Manchester City sweep up almost apart from Liverpool in five years. To think Arsenal can come through and win it, it adds to our league, it makes our league great.”

Neville claims that although he would love Manchester United to finish Champions during Erik ten Hag‘s first season in charge, he does not see it as a feasible option.

“Of course, I’d love Manchester United to come and win it,” explained the former United captain.

But I don’t think it’s going to happen this season. I’d love Arsenal to win it more than Manchester City of course I would, but the reality of it is I think Manchester City will, at some point, hit a run.”

Neville continued to expand on his reasoning, saying: “If Erling Haaland starts to kick on, starts to purr, if the defence starts to shore up a little bit more than it maybe has done… I think City will win it.”

However, he does recognise that what he is saying is somewhat controversial considering the current league standings, and attempts to reassure Arsenal fans that his comments are not out of hate, just out of his genuine prediction for the second half of the season.

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“I’ll say this to the Arsenal fans because I know that you will batter me because you have been doing for the last four months; I hope you win it,” he said. “Because I think, for Mikel Arteta, it’s so difficult for young managers to break that Conte, Klopp, Ancelotti, Guardiola, Mourinho (group), into that mould.

“It’s so difficult now for young managers to grow into be one of those super-managers. You know, Ten Hag is trying to do it as well, you can’t break them. You lose your job before you break them and then you don’t get another one.”

“Fingers crossed that they do win it if Manchester United can’t, which I don’t think they can, because I’d rather have that for the Premier League obviously, and Manchester City have won too many titles for me,” he concluded on the matter.