Gary Neville’s summer Premier League predictions appear to be wrong already

Gary Neville has been forced to amend his Premier League predictions after backing Manchester United to finish above Liverpool at the start of the season.

The Sky Sports pundit, along with his Monday Night Football co-host Jamie Carragher, was asked for his pre-season predictions before the league campaign kicked off in August.

And the results at the halfway point are looking bleak to say the least for Neville.

Both of the former defenders felt Manchester City would retain their Premier League title and, with a six-point lead over Liverpool, Pep Guardiola’s men are in pole position to land their sixth crown since 2012.

But the Man United legend’s forecast has gone awry after mulling over which other three teams would make up the top four.

Both men picked the Red Devils to make it into the top four. But with the New Year approaching, Ralf Rangnick’s side are seven points behind fourth-placed Arsenal.

They have two games in hand on the Gunners after their matches against Brighton and Brentford were postponed. However, they would still fall short of matching Arsenal’s points tally by a single point.

And Neville was forced into a painful climbdown to confirm that he felt arch rivals Liverpool would finish above United this season.

“I think Liverpool, you can swap them with Manchester United. That will be wrong,” he said.

Having picked Arsenal as the side he thought would underwhelm, Neville was forced into another U-turn and backtracked on his prediction, listing United as the disappointing side.

“With underachievers… I said Arsenal, you said Manchester United, and I agree with you,” Neville said to Carragher.

Few could blame Neville for having an optimistic viewpoint at the start of a fresh campaign.

Off the back of finishing second behind Man City, United splashed out £120million to sign Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane.

With Ronaldo coming back for a second spell at Old Trafford, surely nothing could go wrong for Solskjaer’s men.

The Portuguese has delivered goals as expected, with seven in 14 Premier League appearances, but his presence in the side has somewhat upset the balance of power at Old Trafford.

Solskjaer was sacked on November 21 after a 4-1 defeat to Watford made it five losses in seven games, ending the Norwegian’s three-year reign.

Now under the management interim coach Rangnick, the club are set to address their lack of a quality midfielder in January after holding a transfer meeting with United chiefs earlier in December.

And Neville does believe his former club will recover and turn things around to secure Champions League football for another season with some good form in January.

“I think they’ll sort themselves out, even though it has been poor the last two games, they’re still picking up points,” he continued.

“They’ve picked up points against teams near the bottom and they’ve got a favourable month coming up.

"They have to play a lot better than that [the 1-1 draw with Newcastle] but I do think they will pick up a lot of points in that month."

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