Phil Neville has tipped Manchester United to mount a Premier League title challenge this season.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side extended their unbeaten run to nine top-flight matches on Tuesday, overcoming Wolves at Old Trafford.
Marcus Rashford’s deflected strike in second-half stoppage time earned United a seventh win in their last nine games.
And ahead of Aston Villa’s trip to Manchester on New Year’s Day, Neville has backed his former club to compete for the championship this term.
United have not won the title since Alex Ferguson’s final season at the helm in 2012/13.
“I think they can [challenge for the title]," Neville told Amazon Prime Video after the Wolves victory.
“I think what you’ve got to do when you’re looking at a title race is look at the competition. Liverpool are out in front and rightly so, I think they’re the best team in the country. But there is no other team that is actually grasping to go and challenge Liverpool.
"Chelsea have slipped up, Tottenham have slipped up recently, Everton are up there who are in really good form. Apart from that, Manchester City are just climbing.
"United are in this title race if they keep to this level of performance. They’re playing better football, they’re entertaining, they’re starting to win at home. They’ve got a big squad, they’re scoring goals.
“There’s no reason why they can’t sustain this. Ole has spoken about them being more robust – you can see that, the last 20 minutes you could just smell that they started to believe something might happen.
"That’s what the best teams have. They’ve got to sustain that, keep that level of consistency but I do think they can maintain that for the rest of the season and challenge Liverpool, who at this moment of time have got injuries and could slip up."
Liverpool will re-establish their five-point lead over United if they beat Newcastle on Wednesday.
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