Gary Neville names Man City’s biggest threat next season - and it’s not Man Utd or Arsenal

The 2022/23 Premier League title race looked like it was going to be a competitive one with Arsenal leading the league for a large part of the season and Manchester City chasing them down.

In the end though it proved to be almost routine for Pep Guardiola’s side who have secured a third straight championship with games to spare. The Citizens have once again set the standard for the rest of their rivals to aspire to and next season could end up being one of the most competitive in recent memory.

Arsenal will hope to be in the mix once again next season while Manchester United are surely also looking to close the gap on their city rivals. Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur have had disappointing campaigns while Newcastle United have exceeded expectations and could be even stronger after another transfer window.

Despite all that, United icon and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville believes it is none of those teams who are currently the best place to challenge City’s dominance. The former Old Trafford skipper says that Liverpool are the team he believes currently have what it takes and the reason for that is that Jurgen Klopp and many of their players have done it before.

When asked which side he felt was best placed to push City next season, he said: “The team who have got an alignment of quality and mentality. Manchester City’s players have real quality, that goes without saying, but in the most difficult moments of the season in the Premier League they are able to put a run together and come through difficult challenges. Obviously that takes a lot, it takes the manager to guide them through those moments and bring stability, and the other clubs have got to look at that same model.

“It happened for many years at Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson. It happened with Liverpool under Bob Paisley and Bill Shankly, great managers, and Arsene Wenger had a period at Arsenal. You’ve got to be a great manager and you’ve got to have a great group of players to be able to do it consistently like they have. The other teams have got to aspire to that and, at this moment in time, the one who has proved it over the last five to six years is Liverpool.

“I know Arsenal have run City close this year but the only team that I can say at the moment that they can go close to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City is Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool. I know they’ve dropped well below their standards this season but you don’t know whether they are then going to get back to those standards next season because they have proven that they can do it before.”