Parlour makes Man Utd top four prediction as Rangnick suffers first defeat

Ray Parlour believes Manchester United have the strongest squad and should win out in the battle for the final top four spot.

Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool look to have an unbreakable grip on a Champions League berth, leaving a host of teams to battle it out for that final position.

Arsenal currently occupy fourth, with a one-point advantage over West Ham in fifth, behind them is Tottenham, who will leapfrog both of their London rivals should they win their two games in hand.

It's then United in seventh, who are coming off the back of a dismal home defeat to Wolves, the team directly below them in the table.

Joao Moutinho scored the only goal of the game in a game which the visitors dominated, handing Ralf Rangnick his first defeat as interim boss.

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But speaking ahead of the 1-0 loss to Bruno Lage's side, Parlour felt that Rangnick would give his side enough of a bounce to earn them a top four finish.

"If he [Rangnick] can get that little bit of a buzz around Manchester United again, they've got better players probably than most of the squads," Parlour said on Monday.

"Then you look at Spurs, I think it's close between Spurs and Arsenal. The north London derby coming up will be massive for both sides.

"And then West Ham, you still can't write them off. I know they had that little bit of a blip but they've bounced back very well against Palace and Watford. But it's all about the transfer window for me, West Ham need a few more players coming in.

"Certainly a striker is desperate. They've really been dismantled at the back… whether they look at centre-half.

"A lot of it is going to come down to signings in January. Not just the top four, but at the bottom as well.

"If I'm going to stick my neck out, I would certainly go with Manchester United still [to finish fourth]."

Parlour's prediction is now instantly less likely following Monday's defeat, with Rangnick himself even admitting that he couldn't guarantee they would secure Champions League football.

"I cannot make any guarantees," he said. "Look at today's performance: if I say we are 100% convinced we will finish in the top four I don't know if people will believe that.

"It is about taking the next steps and getting better. I knew this could be hard.

"I knew it would be difficult - that's the reason why they brought me. I knew it wouldn't be easy to find a balance between offensively and defensively. We didn't press at all. We tried but we were not able to get into those pressing situations."