Gary Neville believes Tottenham do not have enough to challenge Manchester City and Liverpool for the Premier League title.
Ahead of Liverpool’s trip to West Ham United on Monday night, Spurs sit third in the table – two points behind City and four points behind leaders Liverpool.
But Neville, who won the English top-flight eight times with Manchester United during his playing career, thinks Spurs won’t last the distance with the other title contenders.
“I woke up this morning to people saying Tottenham are title contenders again and I don’t think they are,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“I think if City had played yesterday, Liverpool had played today and Tottenham were on Monday Night Football, I don’t think we would even be talking about Tottenham as title contenders because Liverpool and City would be many points in front.
“I always think with Tottenham, they’ll keep getting close and then dropping back again – I don’t think they’ve quite got it.
“They’ve not got quite as good a team as City and Liverpool and there is no one who would like to see them win the league more than me this season… It would represent an incredible job done by Pochettino over the last three or four years [if they won the Premier League], it would be amazing because he almost deserves it in some ways, but I just feel like they’re not going to win it and they’re going to fall short.
“I’d expect them to beat Watford and Newcastle because they’re a good side, but they’re not going to have the squad depth or the quality to be able to compete with City and Liverpool.
“That is not a criticism and I know Tottenham fans have been disappointed in the last few weeks and I’ve dismissed them for the title because they are so close. I hope they win it, but I don’t think they will.”
Tottenham have to go to Anfield, the Etihad and Stamford Bridge before the end of the season, so it will be an incredibly tough ask for them to finish above City and Liverpool.
However, the Londoners took four points out of nine from those three fixtures last season. If they can hold Liverpool and City to draws – which will be tough – the current top two won’t be able to get too far ahead.
What’s more, Spurs will have Dele Alli and Harry Kane returning in the coming weeks, which will be a huge boost.
Do you think Tottenham have enough to win the title? Or is Neville right? Let us know in the comments section below.
Kane and Alli won’t be back for at least a month by which time they’ll be out of the running. As a Utd fan I’d love to see Spurs win the league this year though
nor did Leicester!!
Liverpool have demonstrated tonight their vulnerability, so no team is invincible, despite what Neville says. We may not win the league, but recent, ground out results indicate we’re not ‘Spursy‘ any longer!