‘That has to change’ – Liverpool have forced Gary Neville into climbdown on startling prediction | OneFootball

It’s taken Gary Neville less than three months to retract the startling prediction that he made about Liverpool at the outset of the season.

On the first Monday Night Football of the 2024/25 campaign in mid-August, the pundit claimed that his former club Manchester United would secure a top-four finish at the expense of Arne Slot’s side, a forecast that many put down to sheer bias.

However, with the Reds leading the way in the Premier League after 10 games and winning 14 of their first 16 matches in all competitions under the Dutchman, the 49-year-old has held his hands up to getting it wrong, even if he expects Manchester City and Arsenal to still be the two main contenders for the title.

Neville changes Liverpool prediction

Speaking on The Overlap US, Neville admitted: “I never change my predictions at this stage of the season, [but] my predictions were that Liverpool wouldn’t even be in the top four.

“That has to change, I think, because they’ve done a far better job of settling Arne Slot in than I imagined and getting over the Jurgen Klopp exit, but I do think City and Arsenal will hit their stride at some point and hit their form. At that point, they will prove to still be the best two teams in the country.

“I don’t feel like I’m watching a champion team. However, if this is the real City and Arsenal that we’re going to see all season and they’re going to be as inconsistent as they have been in these first ten games, then we could end up with a shot. They’re the only other team really that can win it but I still think it’s an outside bet.”

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Can Liverpool prove Neville wrong again?

At the start of the season, only the most optimistic of Liverpool fans would’ve had their team down to be top of the table by November, but Slot has thus far confounded all of the doubters who felt that the Reds would descend into a post-Klopp period of transition.

Still, for Neville to have projected that we’d drop to fifth and that United would steam past us in the table looks increasingly foolish by the week, with his former club languishing in 13th and having already jettisoned Erik ten Hag in favour of Ruben Amorim.

LFC look near-certain to at least secure a Champions League place for 2025/26 barring a drastic collapse, but at what point do we start talking about them as genuine title contenders?

Ten games is enough of a sample size to suggest that they could be in the mix, but if they come through a tough pre-Christmas period which includes an Anfield showdown against Man City and trips to Newcastle, Everton and Tottenham and still be top of the tree, then they’d certainly have to be taken seriously.

Neville has already backtracked on his prediction of Liverpool missing out on the top four. Will the Reds make him revise his latest shout that they’ll still come up short to City and Arsenal?