Manchester United legend Gary Neville (Picture: Sky Sports)
Gary Neville believes Manchester United will now be ‘more confident’ than Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa about qualifying for the Champions League.
United’s incredible turnaround under caretaker manager Michael Carrick continued on Saturday as the Red Devils beat ten-man Tottenham 2-0 at Old Trafford.
Spurs captain Cristian Romero was sent off after just half an hour of Saturday’s game and the hosts took full advantage of their numerical advantage, taking the lead shortly after through Bryan Mbeumo.
Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes put the game to bed late on, sealing the club’s fourth successive win under caretaker boss Carrick.
The brilliant run since Ruben Amorim’s sacking leaves United fourth in the Premier League with 13 games remaining, one point above Chelsea and four above defending champions Liverpool.
Chelsea continued their encouraging form under new manager Liam Rosenior with a 3-1 win over Wolves on Saturday but fellow top-four rival Liverpool lost 2-1 to Manchester City.
Arne Slot’s side led with ten minutes to go through Dominik Szoboszlai’s brilliant free-kick but late goals from Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland completed an impressive Man City comeback.
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Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur - Premier League
Manchester United beat Tottenham at Old Trafford (Picture: Getty)
Neville says it would have been ‘unthinkable’ to imagine Manchester United qualifying for the Champions League just a few weeks ago but insists they now have a ‘massive chance’ to do just that.
‘The team that is most confident about finishing in the top-four out of Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool right now is probably United,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.
‘But things can turn around quite quickly. No one in that top-five or six will be thinking they’re okay. Even City might have come back a bit if they had lost today.
Premier League top-half
Arsenal, 56
Manchester City, 50
Aston Villa, 47
Manchester United, 44
Chelsea, 43
Liverpool, 39
Brentford, 39
Everton, 37
Sunderland, 36
Fulham, 34
‘No one will feel safe because it’s a bizarre season, teams are beating each other and strange things are happening.
‘Everything at Man United is looking really, really good and they do look like they’ve got an incredible chance of qualifying for the Champions League.
‘They don’t have the confusion and the chaos of the fixture list that the others do so they have a massive chance now to get back into the Champions League.
"Liverpool would have to have a HUGE upturn to make Champions League"Jamie Carragher thinks there is a massive uphill battle facing Liverpool between now and the end of the season… 👀 pic.twitter.com/OcAppddnI1
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 8, 2026
‘That would have been unthinkable only four or five weeks ago, unthinkable. I can’t believe where Manchester United are.
‘It was terrible under Ruben Amorim, it was shocking. But now the results are excellent and the performances are fantastic.’
The Premier League is again on course to gain an extra Champions League spot this season with the top-five set to qualify instead of the traditional top-four.
Speaking before United’s win over Spurs, Paul Merson insisted the Red Devils had a ‘huge advantage’ over Chelsea and Liverpool in the top-five race.
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