Gary Neville is of the opinion that Tottenham are the only team capable of challenging posing a challenge to Manchester City and Liverpool for the Premier League title this season.
Both City and Liverpool have had a stranglehold over the league for the past five years, with last season’s title race going neck-to-neck as the Citizens narrowly pipped the Reds to the finishing line by just a solitary point.
Not much else is expected for the upcoming campaign except that the bottle for the third and fourth spots look likely to be a lot more intense given the signings that Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal have made this summer.
Neville is inclined towards Spurs as the ones having a chance of upsetting City and Liverpool at the moment, but despite thinking so, he’s still not convinced enough to give them great odds to pull it off.
‘I think Ivan Perisic [is a good signing]. I’ve got Tottenham Hotspur finishing third in my head. Because of Perisic, Yves Bissouma and Richarlison added into [the mix of] what they’ve already got,’ the former Manchester United captain said on The Overlap podcast.
‘They have already got Harry Kane, Heung-Min Son who are world class. They have two world class players up top, and they’ve now added to it with Perisic and Richarlison.
“I think Tottenham are the only club who could challenge, they won’t finish above Liverpool, but they could if somehow Liverpool wobble or get an injury to Virgil Van Dijk, then Tottenham could [challenge]. They are the only club who could potentially.”
Tottenham have dug deep into the till in an attempt to finally end their trophy-drought, and with serial winner Antonio Conte in charge there is real believe that the club could have a very successful season.
Jamie Carragher, also speaking on The Overlap, shares Neville’s opinion, although he believes that Tottenham’s participation in the Champions League, which the club fought so hard to get last season, may actually prove to be a hindrance in the new campaign.
“I’m a massive fan of Antonio Conte, and I think it’s brilliant to have him in the Premier League,” the Liverpool legend said.
“One thing I would say could stop Tottenham [from doing well] is if they do okay in Europe, because if you look at Conte’s record even when he was at Chelsea, when he had no Europe and he’s got them [the players] for the full week training and the way he trains, you know all the tough training.
“But I think his record if there’s a lot of games coming in Europe there’s a lot more difficulty.”