Arsenal legend Nigel Winterburn has tipped his former club to win the Premier League title this season. Winterburn also predicts Manchester City will finish second and Manchester United third.
Winterburn’s Predicted Top Five
Winterburn has backed Arsenal to pip Manchester City to the Premier League title this season. He believes Manchester United will secure third place. Winterburn went on to predict the rest of the top five, given that the Premier League will have at least five teams in the Champions League next season after securing a European Performance Sport for the second straight year.
- Arsenal
- Man City
- Man United
- Aston Villa
- Liverpool
Arsenal’s Title Challenge
Arsenal’s most recent loss to Bournemouth means another defeat to City this weekend would trim the gap at the top to just three points. With City also having a game in hand, a repeat of the 2-0 Carabao Cup final fixture would hand the initiative back to them heading into the final fixtures, despite Arsenal having topped the table for almost the entire campaign. However, concerned Gunners legend Winterburn hopes that the north Londoners can sidestep a damaging blow to their strongest title challenge since 2004.
The former Gunners left-back said: “I’ve been so strong on us winning the league throughout this season, I am not going to change my mind now.
“I’m going to hope that we can go and put on a brilliant display at City, which will then push us to the title. So I think we’ll be first.”
United’s Top Four Hopes
Winterburn stated that Michael Carrick’s United will keep hold of third place despite winning just one of their last four matches. He said: “Man City will be second, I think it’s going to be as it is, maybe Man United third, Aston Villa and then Liverpool. I don’t know whether I see any significant changes along the way.
“There might be someone, potentially Chelsea, that could come and disrupt that a little bit, but will any of the other teams? I’m not sure they will. Everybody seems to be putting themselves in a good position and then trying to throw it away.
City host rivals Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon in a fixture that could prove decisive in determining this season’s title race. Pep Guardiola’s men are in brilliant form, having beaten the Gunners 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final, Liverpool 4-0 in the FA Cup and Chelsea 3-0 in the Premier League in recent weeks.
That has increased the pressure on Mikel Arteta’s side, who have themselves suffered a concerning drop in form.
The Premier League has been way out in front in the EPS table for most of the season, with all nine English clubs reaching the last 16 in Europe. Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Sporting CP earlier this month confirmed the fifth English Champions League spot.