Man Utd can win Premier League – Phil Neville

Manchester United can win the Premier League title, says Phil Neville.

United claimed their sixth successive win by beating Liverpool 3-0 on Sunday and lie third, eight points behind leaders Chelsea and five adrift of Manchester City.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live on Monday, the former United assistant coach was asked if they could win the league.

“Yes they can,” he said. “The players believe that they can win the title and so does Louis van Gaal.”

Neville, who won six Premier League titles as a player at Old Trafford, was part of the coaching team under David Moyes last season.

United ultimately finished in seventh place, but Neville said the team spirit showed after last Monday’s win at Southampton made him believe Van Gaal’s side can triumph.

“It was at the end of the game, when they celebrated with the supporters,” he said. “Van Gaal went down there, Ryan Giggs went down there, the goalkeeping coach went down there.

“All of a sudden, you’ve got that spirit – that indomitable spirit.

“I’ve won championships, and spirit can take you – sometimes – that far. At the moment, they’ve got the momentum and you just never know.”

United visit Aston Villa, Tottenham and Stoke, as well as hosting Newcastle, over the Christmas and New Year period.

Neville added: “They’ve got some good games coming up where you think ‘they can win all these games over Christmas’.

“They’ve got no mid-week games in Europe and if teams slip up, you just never know.”

United have scored 29 goals in the Premier League with Robin van Persie on seven, Wayne Rooney on six and Juan Mata with five.

Wayne Rooney sees comparisons between the current season and when United last won the league in 2012-13

BBC pundit Neville said: “There are similarities between the United this year and Liverpool last year, where Liverpool had no Champions League football, they had the firepower to fire them up to the top of the league.

“Defensively they have got to get better as well. But the biggest thing is the players believe they can win the title and so does Louis van Gaal.”

Captain Wayne Rooney has drawn comparisons with United’s last title-winning campaign in 2012-13, in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season in charge, when United won the title by 11 points despite rarely hitting the heights.

“We weren’t great in a lot of those games but we got the results,” said Rooney. “Sometimes you have to do that.

“We have to believe we can win the title. If we can win our games and the others have one bad result there is nothing there.”

-BBC