Rio Ferdinand makes bold Man Utd top-four prediction after West Ham defeat

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 8 May 2023 07:53 BST
• 3 min read

Rio Ferdinand remains confident that Manchester United will finish in the top four of the Premier League, despite seeing their advantage over Liverpool slashed at the weekend following a 1-0 defeat to West Ham.

Erik ten Hag’s side have lost successive games in the league and are now only a point clear of the Reds, albeit they have played one game fewer.

Fixtures against Wolves, Bournemouth, Chelsea and Fulham loom for Ten Hag’s men as they aim to get back into the Champions League – with anything short of that now considered a failure given the position of dominance they previously had.

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Doubts appear to be increasing over Man Utd’s ability to see out difficult situations, though, with David de Gea making a key error that brought defeat against West Ham, having also played poorly in their Europa League exit against Sevilla only a couple of weeks previous.

Ten Hag has also indicated that finishing in the top four will be vital to land his chief summer transfer targets.

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’Big surprise’ if Man Utd miss top four – Rio

Ferdinand, though, has no worries that the former Ajax boss will see the job out.

“I think Manchester United’s players will look at the fixtures, see three out of the four games are at home and take that and be quite confident,” Ferdinand told BT Sport.

“Listen, the form hasn’t been great of late but they’ve got to find it from somewhere now. That Old Trafford crowd has a big part to play but the players have to set the tone.

“They haven’t been good enough in recent weeks so they’ve got to change that.

“Liverpool are hot on their heels and I think they will their last three games to put the pressure on.

“But I think Manchester United will just do enough to get in the top-four, I’ll be very surprised if they don’t.”

Man Utd host Wolves at Old Trafford on Saturday in a match they are expected to win, and anything less than that will bring fresh questions over their Champions League potential.