Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta could be going head-to-head for the Premier League title again (Picture: Getty Images)
Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher are both backing Manchester City to win the Premier League again this season, although Neville is not entirely ruling out Arsenal getting their hands on the trophy.
Pep Guardiola’s side are looking to become the first in English top flight history to win four titles on the spin after their immense treble-winning season last time around.
Carragher recognises that a fourth straight title has proved out of reach in the past, but he still believes City are the strongest team and fancy them to make history.
‘They are one of the great teams that we’ve ever seen in this country,’ Carragher told Sky Bet’s The Overlap. ‘I don’t know what it is about winning it for the fourth time because it doesn’t happen, sometimes another team comes from nowhere.
‘I do think with City, the only thing that can stop them is that they’re involved in other stuff. They go off to that World Club Championship, could that have an effect? You come back and you can be a couple of games behind someone.
‘There is a myth around City that they have a massive squad, they’ve never had a massive squad. They have 15 or 16 players who are top class, but they’ve always got two or three kids on the bench. If they had a bit of bad luck with injuries, one of the big players were out how would they cope with that?
‘Arsenal look a lot stronger, Liverpool, Chelsea look stronger, but it’s Pep Guardiola he’s set the bar that high and his teams never normally get lower than 90 points. I think it’s a big ask for anyone.’
Neville has been thoroughly impressed by Arsenal on the pitch and in the transfer market, believing they will push Manchester City just as they did last season, but would still put his money on the champions.
‘I don’t think Arsenal could have done any more to close the gap. They’ve shown real intent with the signings they’ve made,’ said the Manchester United hero.
‘My concern is they are the only team that I think could actually win the league. With the three signings they’ve made they’re going to be better.
‘I look at the other teams and think, who is going to be better than last season?
Erik ten Hag is aiming to turn Manchester United into title challengers (Picture: Getty Images)
‘Chelsea will be naturally better with the manager coming in and they couldn’t get any worse. I don’t look at Liverpool and think wow they’re going to be challenging for the league, I don’t look at United with what they’ve done so far.
‘Unless United, Liverpool or Chelsea do something miraculous in the transfer window, Arsenal are the only team that could challenge City at this moment in time.
‘I think they could get very close to them but I would still go City, just.’
Neville later made his prediction for the top six and put Arsenal top of the table, but admitted: ‘I am going to go Arsenal to win the league, City second. If I was putting my life on it I’d put City, but I’m just going to go Arsenal.’
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The predictions are in.