Gary Neville believes that Manchester City’s loss of points this season will encourage Aston Villa and other teams.
Villa’s 2-1 win over Tottenham last weekend moved them up to fourth place, one place ahead of Ange Postecoglu’s team. Villa is now only two points behind Arsenal.
Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City fell to second place after a 1-1 draw with Liverpool. It was City’s fourth defeat of the season, following a draw at Chelsea and defeats at Wolves and Arsenal.
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“The more Man City drop points, and they’re not wobbling – but the more they drop points to give encouragement to others, the more the league will think there’s a chance something could happen,” he said on the Gary Neville Podcast.
“I predicted Arsenal to win the title this season, but I feel like after three trebles in a row, you might have days like [Saturday] where that clinical, extra bit of a finish doesn’t come along.” We’ve had the Chelsea game a couple of weeks ago, Wolves, Newcastle in the Carabao Cup, and a few moments now where City haven’t quite made it.
“They’re not playing badly,” he said. “They’re in a good place, and they might just make it through this winter slog – November through February – which I used to enjoy.” This is the time when you get rid of the pretenders, the teams that start the season well when the weather is nice and then they just have a good start, and everyone gets a little excited.
“But the middle 15 games, 20 games up until March, really determine who will be in the race at the end.” You lose two or three, and you will lose two or three more in the coming months. City will still be there at the end, but the fact that they are dropping points allows others to be in the title race with them.”
