The former England striker has made a shock prediction.

Michael Owen has made a shock Premier League title race prediction that would see Manchester City drop down the table.

With the start of the 2024-25 Premier League season just over a week away, fans up and down the country and making their predictions about their own teams and others.

Manchester City are many people’s favourites to win the Premier League title, having been crowned champions in each of the last four seasons.

While Pep Guardiola’s side are set to lose Julian Alvarez this summer, they have plenty of young talents who could step up or they could look to to sign an extra attacker.

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Yet despite having such a talented manager and squad, former Liverpool striker Michael Owen does not see City winning the title for a fifth season in a row.

In fact, he believes City won’t finish second or third, but fourth in the standings.

Speaking to Casino Hawks, Owen explained that he thinks that Arsenal will finally get over the line after challenging City in the last two title races.

“Arsenal and Manchester City will go in virtually everybody’s top four predictions and I think Liverpool will probably be in there as well despite there being some questions over how well Arne Slot will fit in,” he said.

“I had a thought about Newcastle but Aston Villa are solid and look to be still improving.

“In terms of the order, my thought process is if City are not gonna win it, they could actually drop away a little bit.

“It’s almost like if City are not gonna be really in the race after 10 games then their priority could go elsewhere – I think there could be a big surprise this season.

“I’m going to go for Arsenal first, Liverpool second, Aston Villa third and Manchester City fourth.”

If Owen’s prediction turns true, then Guardiola will suffer the lowest league finish of his managerial career. Apart from 2016-17 when City finished third, a Guardiola team has never finished outside the top two in their domestic league.