Owen tips Man City to finish below Aston Villa thanks to FFP and Guardiola in top four prediction

Michael Owen reckons Manchester City will finish below Aston Villa in the Premier League this season as the former Liverpool and Manchester United striker predicted which teams will finish in the top four this season.

Pep Guardiola’s side have won four league titles on the bounce and six of the last seven, but Owen reckons Arsenal will get the job done in 2024/25 having finished second in consecutive seasons under Mikel Arteta, who has employed a very strange tactic to teach his players a lesson ahead of the new campaign.

The former striker has predicted a particularly lean year for City in the Premier League.

He told Casino Hawks: “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.

“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.”

Owen believes City’s 115 FFP charges will be a distraction.

He added: “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.

“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.”

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Owen was also asked which sides he expects to be relegated this season and reckons the three promoted sides will struggle.

He added: “I can see the three promoted teams struggling in the Premier League as a trend going forwards, the three that came up went down last season and if it wasn’t for the points deductions suffered by Everton and Nottingham Forest, it would’ve been even more convincing.

“‌They made a fight of it and everybody really enjoyed watching Luton play for example, but if Forest didn’t have points taken off then it would’ve been done earlier.”