Gary Neville makes Arsenal and Chelsea title claim after Liverpool draw with Newcastle

Man Utd legend and ex-England defender Gary Neville (Picture: Getty)

Gary Neville has ‘never been so sure’ Arsenal will retain the Premier League trophy and says Chelsea could be their biggest rivals as neither Manchester City or Liverpool look like title-winning teams.

The Gunners began their title defence with a routine 3-0 win over newly-promoted Coventry City on Friday night.

Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka scored first-half goals for Mikel Arteta’s side before Martin Odegaard added a third after the break.

Man City and Liverpool, who could be two of Arsenal’s biggest rivals for the title, were both in action on Sunday, with Enzo Maresca’s team coming from behind to beat Bournemouth and Andoni Iraola’s side scoring a last-minute equaliser at Newcastle United.

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Maresca’s first Premier League game in charge of Man City looked set to end in defeat as Bournemouth led for almost an hour following Marcus Tavernier’s first-half opener.

But Marc Guehi headed home a late equaliser before Josko Gvardiol scored an injury-time winner for Manchester City, who finished seven points behind Arsenal last season.

Liverpool trailed twice at St James’ Park but Dominik Szoboszlai’s penalty with virtually the lack kick of the game earned the Reds a point at much-changed Newcastle.

Arsenal brushed aside Coventry City (Picture: Getty)

Neville cannot see Liverpool mounting a title challenge after their opening draw with Newcastle and says there are also ‘lots of questions’ over Man City in their first season without Pep Guardiola.

As a result the Manchester United legend and former England defender expects Arsenal to storm to back-to-back Premier League titles.

‘Last week when we were previewing the season all I kept thinking was this is going to be the most unpredictable season and it’s going to be intriguing,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.

Man City survived a scare against Bournemouth (Picture: Getty)

‘We’ve got new managers, lots of new players and so much change at the top. Arsenal should win this league by a street.

‘We’ve seen Tottenham get beaten, Man United lose, Liverpool nearly lose, Man City scrambling for a win at home…

‘The unpredictable nature we thought we’d see at the top we have seen on this opening weekend. It’s played out pretty much how I thought it would do.

Arsenal are bidding to retain the Premier League trophy (Picture: Getty)

‘Arsenal are going to be feeling really confident right now. It’s the most sure I’ve ever been – and look, I could have egg on my face come the end of the season – but it’s the most sure I’ve ever been after game one that we’re going to see a team be Premier League champions.

‘I think Chelsea will finish second because of the squad and the lack of European competition and they’ve got a great manager.

‘I do think Chelsea have a great chance to push Arsenal this year and finish second.’

Liverpool avoided defeat at Newcastle United (Picture: Getty)

On Manchester City’s opening win over Bournemouth, Neville added: ‘They deserved to win the game if you look at some of the chances they missed.

‘I thought they were really bright early on but the shock for me was the formation with Nico O’Reilly at left-back and Marc Guehi in midfield. It was a bit of a surprise and didn’t look quite right.

‘It was really important for Man City and Enzo Maresca to get that win because there’s pressure on him there.

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‘They deserved to win but it wasn’t plain-sailing, there’s still a lot of questions there. We’re measuring Man City and Liverpool by he standards they’ve previously set and they’re nowhere near those standards.

‘You can’t say Liverpool didn’t deserve a point out of the game because they created a lot of chances.

‘I think Liverpool will be happy with the point and the way the game ended but deep down, when you’re measuring yourself against the teams they’ve had recently that have won titles, I think they’ll be thinking “we’ve got a lot of work to do”. They’re nowhere near a title-winning team, I don’t think.

‘If you’re going to play those two full-backs, you better have two amazing centre-backs and two very good defensive midfielders who are going to stop counter-attacks.

‘You need to compensate for that. Their midfielders aren’t really holding players, quite often they empty the midfield by running forward, so I think that’s a real problem for the balance for Liverpool.

‘The other big thing for Liverpool is they’ve got Isak and Wirtz who are going to have to start playing soon. We’ve been kind on them two.

‘They need to start delivering and they need to improve. There were some positives for Liverpool but there’s a big question over Isak and Wirtz still, those two need to deliver.’

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‘Madness!’ – Jamie Carragher makes worrying Liverpool claim after Newcastle draw

Jamie Carragher was not impressed with Liverpool against Newcastle (Photo: Getty)

Jamie Carragher slammed Andoni Iraola’s tactics as Liverpool scraped a 2-2 draw at Newcastle United in their opening Premier League clash.

Following emotional pre-match tributes to the late Kevin Keegan, Newcastle were the better side at St. James’ Park on Sunday, taking an early lead through Anthony Elanga.

Cody Gakpo equalised after the break, only for the home side to hit back immediately with Joe Willock scoring just seconds after coming off the bench.

The Magpies were on course for victory until the 96th minute when Lewis Hall fouled Victor Munoz in the box, with Dominik Szoboszlai scoring the resulting penalty to share the points.

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The Reds looked incredibly vulnerable in Iraola’s first game since replacing Arne Slot in the dugout, with Newcastle consistently overrunning their midfield of Ryan Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz.

Liverpool legend Carragher was left incensed by Elanga’s goal on the counter-attack, immediately posting on Twitter: ‘LFC Midfield all bombing forward happened all pre-season, madness!’

And after Willock’s goal occurred in similar circumstances, Carragher posted: ‘Again! This midfield cannot work, I said it before a competitive ball was kicked.’

Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool aren’t off to a great start (Photo: Getty)

Former Liverpool forward Daniel Sturridge concurred with the former defender, urging Iraola to sign a new No.6 before the transfer window closes on September 1.

‘I think the team needs a defensive midfielder personally,’ the former Chelsea and Manchester City star told Sky Sports. ‘We’ve been talking about the defensive midfielder at Liverpool for the past three years.

‘Gravenberch coming into the team, playing consistently and Liverpool winning the Premier League changed that philosophy. But if you actually analyse the midfield, they’re all naturally more attacking players.

Liverpool’s midfield struggled to cope with Newcastle’s pressing and counter-attacks (Photo: Getty)

‘If you look at Brentford, they bring in [Mamadou] Sangare and you look at his stats, they jump out. Third in interceptions, third in tackles, third in possession recovered.

‘£39million, that’s not a load of money for someone like Liverpool. I’m not suggesting he was the man [they should’ve signed] but the stats jump out and Liverpool don’t have that profile of player right now.

‘Trey Nyoni, I really, really like him as a player, I think he’s brilliant. He’s more of a ball playing six or eight, he’s not a destroyer, he’s not someone who’s going to strike fear into the opposition like a Sangare or an N’Golo Kante can.’

Liverpool have not been heavily linked with a new defensive midfielder, with the club instead focusing on a new winger to replace Mohamed Salah.

The Reds have seen two bids for Yankuba Minteh rejected, with Brighton reportedly seeking £70m for the Gambia international.

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EastEnders boss confirms major new story for Suki and Eve after quiet spell

‘There’s something big coming up.’ (Picture: BBC)

Eve and Suki Panesar-Unwin (Heather Peace and Balvinder Sopal) have had a bit of a quieter period in EastEnders recently. According to executive producer Ben Wadey, that’s about to end in a big way.

‘Suki and Eve have something big coming up.’ Ben teased during a recent EastEnders press event.

‘We deliberately played out the adoption story very slowly and very realistically because it’s a real world issue that lots of people go through and we wanted to get that right.’

‘Suki has been a little bit quiet for a while and we wanted to track that. Suki and Eve have something quite major coming up and we are going to do a little announcement in the coming weeks to tease that a little bit more.’

The couple have suffered a long, hard fight in their journey to start a family, with more than their fare share of obstacles on the road to adoption.

It all started when Suki discovered her step-granddaughter Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James) was pregnant. Overcome with desperation to be a mum, Suki acted out of character and pressured Avani to continue with a pregnancy that she was clearly terrified of carrying to term.

Fortunately, Eve learned that Avani was not at all on board and intervened, supporting her wish to have a termination even if it meant exploding her relationship with Suki.

Boy, did things explode.

The couple’s adoption journey has not been plain sailing. (Picture:BBC)

When Avani’s parents, Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan Levy) and Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) found out, the fallout was so bad that Suki and Eve ended up finding separate living arrangements.

#Sukeve was joyously reunited after Eve was subjected to a disgusting homophobic attack. Their love reaffirmed, Eve warmed up to getting onboard the baby train and declared that she wanted them to consider adoption.

Sadly, this was just the start of the Panesar-Unwins’ problems.

First there was Eve’s bigoted mother Norma (Jessica Turner), who did all the meddling she could to put the kybosh on the couples’ adoption dreams. Then their social worker got ring that Ravi and Priya’s family life wasn’t exactly healthy and happy due to the fact that he’d been running a drug ring.

But the cherry on top was the day the couple met with the adoption panel, which unfortunately also happened to be the anniversary of Jags Panesar’s (Amar Adatia) death, leading to a furious clash between Suki and Vinny Panesar (Shiv Jalota).

This led to a near hysterical Suki fleeing the panel meeting Suki and having a drunken, violent confrontation with Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington), something that Nicola got on CCTV and was more than happy to use to blackmail the hopeful parents.

Against all odds, Suki and Eve’s dreams came true when the panel accepted them, and soon the couple welcomed Ria Virdi (Aaria Sharma) into their home. They were even able to – sort of – bury the hatchet with Nicola.

The only drama Suki and Eve have struggled through recently in their difficulty in bonding with Ria, who misses her real mum. Eve, who has borne the brunt of this, got some much needed parental advice from an unlikely source – Nicola.

Viewers have seen a thawing between Nicola and Eve. (Picture: BBC)

Now that their beef is on ice for now, it’s safe to say that whatever Eve and Suki’s next big story is, Nicola won’t be the cause of the drama. Or is it?

Actress Laura Doddington, who plays Nicola certainly hopes so, as she shared in a recent exclusive interview with Metro.

‘To come out of that blackmail, shall we say that Nicola performed, to move forward and put it behind them. To have two women of a certain age,able to sit down and chat and be there for each other, I think is really lovely. I hope it continues.’

But will it? Or is there a chance that Nicola could cause further problems for Eve and Suki?

‘Who knows?’ admits Laura Doddington. ‘Six months down the line, has she deleted the footage? Has she not? I don’t know!’

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Alfie’s chaos draws police in as Kat is left utterly furious in EastEnders

Alfie Moon decides to throw a street party, but it ends in disaster… (Picture:BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)

Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) is only trying to cheer Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) up next week, but his well-meaning plan quickly turns into chaos when the police are called to the Square in EastEnders.

Kat has been struggling recently, and Alfie is desperate to put a smile back on her face. But rather than sitting down and talking to her about what’s really bothering her, he decides that a surprise party is the answer.

It all starts when Alfie is happily watching footage from Bert and Ernie’s school project.

However, his mood soon changes when he spots Kat in the video looking upset.

Alfie immediately becomes concerned and starts wondering what is going on with his wife. Rather than confronting Kat about what he has seen, though, he decides to keep the footage to himself.

Instead, Alfie secretly ropes in the rest of the family to help him put together something special for Kat.

Alfie is determined to lift Kat’s spirits (Picture:BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)

His idea is a Benidorm-themed party, inspired by a happy holiday memory the pair share.

It is certainly an unconventional way of trying to lift someone’s spirits, but Alfie is convinced it will do the trick.

The family, however, aren’t quite as convinced.

They question why Alfie is avoiding the obvious and not simply talking to Kat about the footage. But before they can push him too much, Alfie unveils his surprise and Kat is left genuinely moved by the gesture.

Soon enough, the whole Square gets swept up in Alfie’s attempt at bringing a bit of holiday fun to Walford.

And when Alfie gets involved, things are never likely to stay calm for long.

The street descends into a full-on party, with Alfie going all out to recreate that Benidorm feeling.

There’s even a paddling pool complete with a slide, giving the residents the chance to cool off and enjoy a rather unexpected day of fun.

For a while, it seems like Alfie’s plan has actually worked (Picture:BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)

Kat is distracted from her worries and the locals are enjoying themselves.

But the fun doesn’t last.

A community officer soon arrives and puts an abrupt end to the celebrations.

The officer isn’t impressed by the impromptu street party and threatens Kat and Alfie with a hefty fine.

Given that the pair are already dealing with plenty of other pressures, the last thing they need is another problem landing on their doorstep.

Unsurprisingly, Kat isn’t exactly thrilled by the intervention.

True to form, she gives the officer a piece of her mind, while Alfie attempts to calm her down and prevent the situation from getting even worse.

But just when it looks like the drama might finally be settling down, another problem emerges.

Alfie’s street party takes a turn for the worst (Picture:BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)

Ria is injured amid the chaos, leaving everyone concerned.

The incident immediately raises the stakes for Kat and Alfie, particularly because of the potential consequences it could have for Suki and Eve’s ongoing custody case.

Suki is quick to make her feelings known and threatens legal action, putting even more pressure on the couple.

For Kat, it is all becoming too much.

Already struggling with her emotions, she storms off, leaving Alfie wondering whether his attempt to cheer her up has actually made everything considerably worse.

What started as a sweet gesture based on one of their happiest memories has now resulted in a potential fine, an injury and the threat of legal action.

And Alfie may soon have to face the fact that throwing a huge party wasn’t quite the solution Kat needed.

With tensions rising and Kat furious, will Alfie be able to explain himself?

Or has his attempt to put a smile back on Kat’s face landed the pair in even more trouble?

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‘Not even looking!’ – Peter Schmeichel tears into three Man Utd stars after Hull humiliation

A nightmare start for Michael Carrick (Picture: Shutterstock Editorial)

Peter Schmeichel took aim at three Manchester United stars for their roles in the woeful opening day defeat to Hull City.

Pre-season optimism was chipped away inside 38 minutes on Saturday afternoon as the newly-promoted Tigers took a 2-0 lead through goals from Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy.

Michael Carrick’s side were twice undone by set pieces with Ajayi lashing into the roof of the net after Oli McBurnie’s initial effort was pushed onto the bar by Senne Lammens.

Record signing Mendy added a second shortly before half-time, powering home a header from Regan Slater’s free kick.

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United were in disarray for Hull’s opener, beaten to the first ball in the build-up which led to the corner. As the ball came in, Dorgu let the ball pass him with Heaven not tight enough to McBurnie as he forced the ball back towards goal.

Dissecting the goal at half-time, Schmeichel blasted Dorgu for ‘not looking at the ball’, insisting Heaven had to be stronger dealing with the Hull striker.

‘Look at Dorgu on the front post, he is not even looking at the guy taking the corner kick,’ the United legend told Premier League Productions.

Heaven struggled at Hull (Picture: Action Images via Reuters)

‘At that exact moment, he loses his concentration, he does not have the ability to block the first ball.

‘And of course, Ayden Heaven on the back post. He allows McBurnie to go in behind him. You can’t allow that. That’s not how you defend, you have to be stronger.’

Schmeichel also took a dim view of United’s defending for the second goal. As United and Hull players jostled for position inside the box as the free kick was being taken, Luke Shaw was spotted inexplicably dropping back to play the opposition onside.

Shaw was also at fault (Picture: REUTERS)

Schmeichel added at full-time: ‘It is the absolute lack of concentration from Man United. That’s what disappoints me the most.

‘I picked on Luke Shaw. Luke Shaw is two yards behind everyone else, playing everyone else onside.

‘He shouldn’t be there. He fell for the dummy. If he stayed up there, he would be either offside or it would have gone out for a goal kick.

‘That’s a disappointment for me, that an experienced team like that makes mistakes like that.’

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