GARY NEVILLE has made a U-turn on his prediction of who will win the Premier League title.
The former Manchester United defender is still backing Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City to win the league but has picked up on an area where they could slip up.
Neville had previously said in January that the Gunners would not win the league, even though they were eight points clear at the time.
But now, he has changed his tune, after insisting that Guardiola is “messing around” with his team too much which could do Arsenal a favour in their hunt for their first title in 20 years.
He said on The Overlap: “I think they [Arsenal] played quite well [against Everton], I didn’t think it was a bad one – obviously it’s a bad result for them.
“Do you know something, we were at the City game on Sunday and when the team came through I thought for the first time that Arsenal could win the league.
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“And that’s not looking smart after the event because City had lost, but I just thought he [Guardiola] is messing around, he’s tinkering far too much.
“I don’t know why Kevin De Bruyne isn’t playing, I don’t know why Ilkay Gundogan is not playing, I don’t know why Ruben Dias is not back in the centre of that defence with Aymeric Laporte to make them solid.
“I saw the team and I thought, from the point of view of my prediction – which is that City will catch Arsenal – I was less sure on Sunday than I’ve ever been.
“I was pretty certain two weeks ago, I was actually certain on Saturday afternoon, I thought, ‘Right, City will do it proper tomorrow, this will be a proper champion’s performance, he [Pep] won’t mess around’, but if he carries on doing what he’s doing…”
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City, in fact, did not put in a “proper champion’s performance” and instead lost 1-0 to Tottenham, with Harry Kane scoring the only goal of the game.
Joao Cancelo was also offloaded to Bayern Munich on loan and along with the charges of breaking FFP by the Premier League, there is a lot of change at City.
And Neville thinks that all the noise going on at the Etihad could be a big distraction from the pitch.
But if they get back to their best and start “purring” they can still win the league.
He added: “This is the stuff that we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks that makes me think my prediction could be wrong.
“And it’s not because of what Arsenal are doing, it’s actually what City are not doing.
“I’m not saying Arsenal haven’t had a great season.
“But you cannot, if Man City are purring, win the league off Manchester City in my opinion.
“I still think City will win the league, but the fact we’re even talking about Arsenal winning the league is a miracle from where I thought they would be at the end of last season.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
