Leeds United currently sit two points above crisis-ridden Spurs in the Premier League table.
Sign up to our Leeds United newsletter
Sign up
Thank you for signing up!
Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Yorkshire Evening Post, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.
Submitting...
Gary Neville believes it would be good for the Premier League if established teams are relegated amid pre-season worries over the fate of Leeds United.
Leeds were promoted from the Championship alongside Burnley and Sunderland but faced arguably a more difficult task than ever surviving. In each of the previous two seasons, all three newly-promoted sides went straight back down and many pre-season predictions pointed towards a repeat.
But while Burnley have struggled, Leeds and Sunderland currently sit outside the bottom three with the latter virtually safe following their 1-0 win at Elland Road last week. Daniel Farke’s side sit three points above 18th-placed West Ham, with Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur between the pair also.
Of those four candidates to join Burnley and Wolves, Spurs feel like they are in the biggest crisis with new manager Igor Tudor losing all of his four games in charge so far. The North London club are just one point clear of West Ham with Liverpool away this weekend.
“I must admit, seeing Tottenham go down, it wouldn’t be great for Tottenham fans, but it would be very good for the Premier League from a competitive perspective,” Neville told The Overlap. “The idea of Leeds staying up, Sunderland staying up, because I was worried that every club that came up would go straight back down again.”
Subscribe to Inside Elland Road newsletter with Graham Smyth for unique, behind-the-scenes Leeds United coverage, expert analysis and exclusive interviews
There is already huge pressure on Tudor, whose side are in free-fall with mounting disciplinary problems and no clear route to points. The Croatian admitted after a 5-2 midweek Champions League defeat at Atletico Madrid that everything is going against Spurs.
Gary Neville Spurs relegation verdict amid Leeds United hope
“The Premier League doesn’t necessarily need Tottenham to go down; they need clubs other than the ones who have come up to go down,” Neville added. “It would be sad if they went down, but maybe they’ve had it coming. If you’re going to make another [managerial] change, that for me needs to be today or tomorrow, because you don’t wait.”
Leeds still have to go to Tottenham, of course, with their trip to North London marking the third-to-last game of the season. Daniel Farke and his side will hope to have increased their three-point cushion on the drop zone by that point but it looks set to be a huge game regardless.
Despite last week’s 1-0 defeat to Sunderland halving their six-point cushion, Leeds are still deemed more likely to survive than Spurs, Nottingham Forest or West Ham. That is due in part to the fact they have a more favourable run-in on paper compared to all rivals.
Farke’s side travel to Crystal Palace this weekend before the visit of Brentford to Elland Road before the March international break. That is the first of four more home games which also includes Wolves, Burnley and Brighton.