Roy Keane was left red-faced when Sky Sports dug up his pre-season predictions live on air during their coverage of Fulham vs Arsenal on Sunday.
Both London clubs have massively surpassed expectations this season, but it was Arsenal who rode out 3-0 winners at Craven Cottage.
For the second weekend in a row, Mikel Arteta’s side responded to a Manchester City win by winning and restoring teir five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table.
With just 11 games of the season left to play, Arsenal will be quietly confident of winning their first league title since 2004, even if they do still have to play City at the Etihad Stadium next month.
Fulham have arguably been the other main sucess story of the season. Having been comfortably relegated in 2020/21, the Cottagers were expected to go straight back down in their first season back in the top flight.
However, Marco Silva has done a fantastic job at establishing his side in mid table, and with 39 points on the board after 27 games, they still have an outisde shot of qualifying for the Europa League.
The fortunes of both Arsenal and Fulham have come as a surprise to many fans and pundits, none more so than Keane.
The former Manchester United captain was pessimistic about both sides at the start of the season, and during Sunday’s coverage of the match his predictions came to light.
Sky showed a clip from the summer when Keane didn’t even mention Arsenal among his contenders for the league title.
“In terms of winning the league, Liverpool and City, I can’t see beyond it,” he said.
When he spoke about the newly promoted sides, he wasn’t exactly positive about Fulham.
“I fear for Fulham,” he said. “The Premier League is so strong now.”
To be fair to Keane, he wasn’t the only one who overlooked Arsenal’s title challenge. Gary Neville also had his pre-season prediction played back to him in the studio.
“I don’t feel that any of the other teams, United and Arsenal, are in a position to get close to the top two,” Neville said about the title race.
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