Gary Neville's new Leeds United Premier League relegation verdict with 'awkward' West Ham & Nottingham Forest point
Leeds United are guaranteed to spend Christmas outside the Premier League relegation zone following Saturday’s win over Crystal Palace.
Gary Neville believes two of his three Premier League relegation predictions will be correct but Leeds United ‘have a real chance’ of surviving.
Leeds were widely tipped to drop straight back into the Championship over the summer, having seen all three newly-promoted sides suffer instant relegation in the previous two seasons. Elland Road chiefs set their goal as finishing 17th with Paraag Marathe admitting anything above that would be ‘gravy’.
Daniel Farke’s side will be either 17th or 16th on Christmas Day, depending on Nottingham Forest’s result against Fulham this evening, having climbed out of the relegation zone despite a difficult December. A formation switch at Manchester City has sparked fresh life into the West Yorkshire side, who have since gone four unbeaten.
Leeds have enjoyed two brilliant home wins against Chelsea and Crystal Palace while twice coming from behind to draw with Liverpool and Brentford, scoring an impressive 11 goals in the process. And former Manchester United defender Neville has seen enough in recent weeks to cast doubt on his original relegation prediction.
“I had Burnley, Wolves and Leeds to go down at the start of the season,” Neville told his podcast on YouTube. “I think Leeds have a real chance. I’ll be right with Burnley and Wolves, I’m not sure I’ll be right with Leeds. I think they’ve got something.
“Depending on keeping two or three players fit - I think Ampadu and Calvert-Lewin are important, the two wing-backs are really energised - I think for me Leeds have got a real hope. Their manager has gained strength through coming out of it.
“They're starting to pick up their performances and make Elland Road a place you'd expect it to be when they're in the Premier League. It's somewhere teams don't want to go because they know they're going to have a rough ride. They're making it that way.”
Gary Neville’s warning for West Ham, Nottingham Forest & Fulham
With Burnley and Wolves facing an uphill task to climb out of the bottom three, it looks like Leeds will be fighting to stay out of that final relegation place between now and May. It remains to be seen how many rivals they will be battling but West Ham are likely to remain down there, while Nottingham Forest and Fulham are both within touching distance.
Leeds were tipped as the most likely to join Burnley and Wolves just a few weeks ago but their four-game unbeaten run has pulled them six points clear of West Ham, while neither Fulham nor Forest have been able to pull clear. And Neville believes all three will now be feeling a little uncomfortable having seen recent results at Elland Road.
“I think West Ham, Fulham, Forest, I think they'll be looking at Leeds and thinking ‘that's making me feel a little bit uncomfortable’," Neville added. “I think they'd have looked at Leeds three or four weeks ago, like I did, thinking ‘they’ll go with [Burnley and Wolves] and we should be okay’.
“But I think looking at the level of performance, what they’re doing, picking up points against Chelsea, Crystal Palace, nearly against Manchester City and a point against Liverpool, and thinking ‘oh, this is a bit awkward, not what we expected’. They need to really shape up.”