Gary Neville believes Fulham, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest will all make an immediate return to the Championship.
The Manchester United legend has offered his pre-season Premier League predictions ahead of the opening game between Crystal Palace and Arsenal on Friday evening. Jamie Carragher has also got off the fence, but he doesn't agree with his colleague's predictions.
The Liverpool icon thinks Fulham will stay up and Brentford, who lost talisman Christian Eriksen to Man Utd earlier this summer, will drop into the second tier. Neville is also concerned the Bees could be pulled into a relegation scrap and has warned Leeds fans.
Speaking on The Overlap ahead of the new Premier League campaign, Neville offered his thoughts. "All three [promoted clubs] could go down.," insisted Neville. "We’re getting to a point now whereby the parachute clubs [relegated the season before] are coming back up and the ones who came up [the season prior] are going down.
"It's getting more predictable every year. I know the Premier League try and tell you a different story. It used to be one in three [were relegated], but it’s a lot higher now. Nottingham Forest - they’ve not been there [the Premier League] for a long time.
"I always think when a club comes up from the Championship, it’s an entire event to win a Premier League game. You’ll see that with Brentford last year. Every time they won a game it was a monumental occasion, because it’s a relief.
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"It’s been like that for Burnley the last seven or eight years until they went down. Every time they [Burnley] won a game it’s like an unbelievable feeling. I just feel it’s getting harder and harder."
Carragher, however, disagreed with Neville. "I think Brentford could have a problem," said the Sky Sports pundit. "I think they had a run at the second half of last season where they went 10 or 12 games without winning – that can happen when you come up.
"I think [Christian] Eriksen coming in just changed that. I hope I’m wrong because I’ve loved them in the Premier League, but that Sheffield United thing just keeps coming into my head with Brentford."
Sheffield United were tipped to suffer relegation when they were promoted to the Premier League in May 2019 but enjoyed a fabulous campaign, finishing ninth. Yet the following season was a disaster for the Blades, ending up bottom. Like Sheffield United, Brentford enjoyed a stellar first season in the Premier League - finishing 13th.
Carragher added: "So, Bournemouth, Brentford and I’ve said I want Forest to stay up and I think in terms of Marco Silva. I think he’ll make it difficult for teams... I’m going to go – even though I don’t want them to go down – I think Fulham might stay up and it’ll be Forest, Bournemouth and Brentford."
Although Neville admitted Brentford and Leeds could be pulled into the relegation scrap, he concluded: "I’m going to go with the three that came up going straight back down. The reason I say that is the inequality in terms of the actual money, is pushing it more that way [down] all the time."
