“Well done to Aston Villa, but they won’t win the league. I would be surprised if they finished in the top four”- Gary Neville gives verdict on Aston Villa PL title chances as he says Villans won’t repeat Leicester title win
Gary Neville has given his verdict on the chances of Unai Emery’s Aston Villa winning the Premier League title this season.
The former Manchester United defender made the comments in the wake of Villa beating Arsenal and Manchester City in the past week.
Well, Aston Villa are doing exceptionally well at the moment. Unai Emery’s side are third in the Premier League table.
Villa have picked up 35 points from 16 matches. They are now just a point behind second-placed Arsenal and only two points behind leaders Liverpool.
Defending champions Manchester City are two points behind the Villans in fourth.
Villa beat Manchester City 1-0 at Villa Park in the Premier League last Wednesday. They followed that up with a 1-0 victory over Arsenal at home in the league this past weekend.
While Gary Neville has been hugely impressed by Villa, but he does not think that they will win the Premier League title or finish in the top four this season.
“They are really good, I had them fifth in the season and thought Unai Emery would do something really good with them. I’ve got so much respect for him as a coach. I learnt a lot about him when I was over in Valencia for that four months about how he operated and how he was thought of over there” he said to Sky Sports.
“It was a bit difficult for him at Arsenal but he is a brilliant coach and what they’re doing, I don’t think it’s just a moment. It will be difficult to sustain it in the long term because of the lack of spending capacity of the clubs. But I think what we’re seeing here at this moment is they they’re here to stay.
“I saw them fifth in the season and I think that’s where they could end. Manchester United and Chelsea are awful at this moment in time, you know they spent a fortune, so there’s a chance in that fourth space.”
When asked to compare Aston Villa now to Leicester City in December 2015, his reply was quite simple.
“Villa are as good as Leicester but I think that was a poor season in the Premier League in terms of the top clubs. For me, I think that they are definitely equal or better than Leicester were in 2015 but that won’t translate into the same achievement.
“For Villa to be where they are, it’s exceptional, just generally where they were in the last few years.
“So, for me, well done to Aston Villa, but they won’t win the league. I would be surprised if they finished in the top four, but I would love them to.”
While I personally do not think that Aston Villa will win the Premier League title this season, we should not discount them doing what Leicester City did.
Remember when Leicester won the Premier League title? No one could have imagined the Foxes achieving that level of success.
Of course, that was a miracle, but we cannot say for sure that it will not happen again. After all, it is only December now. There is a lot of football to be played.
For now, Villa should continue to take one game at a time and focus on finishing in the Premier League top four.
