Michael Owen
Michael Owen predicted Manchester City's struggles before the season started
Michael Owen has been hailed by football fans after his pre-season prediction that Manchester City would struggle to make top four resurfaced.
Owen remarkably backed City to finish fourth before the season started, despite the fact that Pep Guardiola's have won the Premier League for the last four seasons. At the time, Owen said he felt City "could actually drop away a little bit" if they fell out of the title race early and his prediction is coming true.
City currently sit seventh in the league, 12 points off top of the table Liverpool and four points behind fourth-placed Nottingham Forest, and they have won just one of their last eight matches.
"Arsenal and Manchester City will go in virtually everybody's top four predictions and I think Liverpool will probably be in there as well despite there being some questions over how well Arne Slot will fit in," Owen told Casino Hawks.
[
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"I had a thought about Newcastle but Aston Villa are solid and look to be still improving. In terms of the order, my thought process is if City are not gonna win it, they could actually drop away a little bit.
"It's almost like if City are not gonna be really in the race after 10 games then their priority could go elsewhere – I think there could be a big surprise this season. I'm going to go for Arsenal first, Liverpool second, Aston Villa third and Manchester City fourth.
"The title is Manchester City's to lose, but I think they could slip up this year. They have really put their foot down when they have needed to and went on an incredible run last year, but at some point they're going to fall short.
"When other challengers get stronger and wiser it'll get tougher for them and I wouldn't rule out that being this season. They've also got the investigation hanging over them and Pep Guardiola is not going to be there forever. This could be his last season.
City currently sit seventh in the Premier League after a poor run of form
"There's always things that test you throughout the season and they've navigated that so far, but something might knock them off the rail this season. With Arsenal being so good last season and with no signs of them going away with more signings coming in, they are viable challengers again."
Owen's comments resurfaced after City suffered their latest defeat, a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa on December 21, with fans hailing the former Liverpool striker. "He's probably the only person in football that saw this coming," wrote one.
"Fair play to Michael Owen for spotting what many of us missed. It's never easy to go against the grain, especially with a team as dominant as City. Respect for the bold call," added a second. A third wrote: "He got slated for this, but fair play. He saw their struggles before a lot of us."
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