Gary Neville predicts the team most likely to challenge Man City for next year’s title

Despite Arsenal coming off a solid challenge that ran into the penultimate weekend of this campaign, the former Manchester United defender has explained why Jurgen Klopp’s side are best placed to a charge in 2023-24.

The number of clubs with genuine ambition to win the league could be insufficient after the summer given the problems with regular hopefuls Tottenham and Chelsea, which makes United, Liverpool and Arsenal the likely candidates alongside a team. of Newcastle juggling their return to Champions. League.

For Neville, the key to the challenge is ‘an alignment of quality and mentality’ starting with having a manager capable of taking on Pep Guardiola.

“Manchester City players have real quality, it goes without saying, but in the toughest times they are able to organize themselves and take on tough challenges,” he told Sky Sports.

“It takes a lot, you need a manager to guide them and bring stability. Other clubs need to look at this model – it happened at Manchester United under Alex Ferguson, Liverpool under Bob Paisley and Bill Shankley, and Arsene Wenger spent a spell at Arsenal.

“You have to be a great manager and have a great group of players to be able to do it consistently like (City) did. Other teams have to aspire to that.

“Right now, the ones who have proven that over the last five or six years are Liverpool.

“I know Arsenal have run City closely this year, but the only team I can say that have shown they can come close to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City is Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool.

“They’ve fallen well below their standards this season, but you don’t know if they’ll get back to those standards next season – because they’ve proven they can do it before.”