Neville crowns Arsenal champions as Carragher catches him changing United prediction

Gary Neville has settled on Arsenal as his Premier League champions after a weekend of flip-flopping that left Jamie Carragher gleefully calling him out on Monday Night Football.

The debate was sparked by Manchester United’s 2-0 defeat at newly-promoted Hull City on the opening day of the season — a result that appeared to shake Neville’s confidence in his former club. Carragher wasted little time going on the offensive, telling viewers: “I’ve heard you’ve changed it four times over the weekend. So after United played, he changed it to Liverpool. Liverpool played and he changed it to United.”

Neville did not deny the vacillation. “A couple of weeks ago, I had United in third,” he explained. “I didn’t have Chelsea where they were, but as you sort of get nearer to the season, you start to look at the squads and you start to think about it. You think about Chelsea and the fact they’ve got no European football — that’ll give them a big edge.”

Pushed to commit, Neville named Arsenal as champions, with Chelsea as runners-up, followed by Manchester City and United in fourth. “At the moment, I’m not convinced by United or Liverpool, really, but I do think they’ll finish fourth and fifth,” he added.

Carragher’s own prediction differs at the top: he has Arsenal winning the title, but places Manchester City second, with Chelsea and Liverpool rounding out the top four.

The early evidence gave both pundits some ammunition. Arsenal opened their campaign with a composed 2-0 win over Coventry City, while Chelsea edged Fulham 3-2 in Enzo Maresca’s Premier League managerial debut. Manchester City also began with three points, though it took late goals from Marc Guehi and Josko Gvardiol to secure a 2-1 victory over Bournemouth.

Liverpool, meanwhile, were seconds from defeat in Andoni Iraola’s first Premier League match in charge, trailing Newcastle United 2-1 before Dominik Szoboszlai converted a 99th-minute penalty to salvage a 2-2 draw — hardly the statement result that would have settled Neville’s deliberations.