Rio Ferdinand makes Premier League top-four prediction and gives advice to Manchester United

Rio Ferdinand expects Manchester City to retain the Premier League title this season and has predicted who will join Pep Guardiola’s side in the top-four.

Man City won their fourth league title in five years last season and begin the 2022-23 campaign on Sunday against West Ham.

Liverpool finished just one point behind the English champions after a thrilling title tussle, while Chelsea came third and Tottenham beat Arsenal to the final top-four spot.

Ferdinand believes Liverpool are the only team who can run Manchester City close this season but expects Spurs to continue their revival under Antonio Conte and Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United to improve.

As a result, Ferdinand has predicted Liverpool will finish the season as runners-up and be joined in the top-four by Tottenham and Man United, with Chelsea and Arsenal both missing out on the Champions League places.

‘I can’t look any further than Man City,’ the former England defender told William Hill. ‘Recruitment has been efficient and with [Erling] Haaland, they’ve got the best in the market.

‘And [they’ve got] squad depth with someone like [Kalvin] Phillips as well. The only one I think will be a loss for them is [Raheem] Sterling, but I feel this season [Jack] Grealish will step up and become one of the main men.

‘The top four will be Manchester City, Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester United, in that order.’

Under Ralf Rangnick and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Manchester United finished just sixth last term, going a fifth successive season without any silverware.

While Ferdinand is confident his former club will improve this season under former Ajax boss Ten Hag, he says United need to deal with the saga surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portugal legend wants to leave Old Trafford