Robbie Savage believes Manchester City will have 'failed' if they don't beat 'favourites' United to title

Former Wales and Leicester City midfielder Robbie Savage believes Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United can now be called favourites to win the Premier League this year, and claimed that Manchester City “will have failed” if they don’t win it.

Speaking with The Independent, Savage – who was part of United’s youth system as a youngster – highlighted Mourinho’s men as a side boasting the “goals, clean sheets, power and pace” needed to fire them back to their first title since 2013.

United and City are currently level on points and goal difference at the Premier League summit, both sides having played five games. Both Mourinho and long-time rival Pep Guardiola made several major signings in the summer, and Savage says, with clear admiration in his voice, that “both [Mourinho and Guardiola] have built squads in their own images”.

Yet despite Savage believes that United are favourites and insists City “should be able to win the league” with the money they’ve spent, and “will have failed” if they don’t. It is a refreshingly forthright claim, with Guardiola’s grandee status at City sometimes fostering the sense that he is incapable of failure in the eyes of City’s owners, or even ‘unsackable’. But with Guardiola’s summer outlay totalling over £200m he should indeed expect, and not merely hope, to win the league this year.

Probed on whether an English club can win the Champions League this term, Savage demurs. He says that the English clubs “will need to massively improve from last season” – no English club advanced beyond the quarter-finals last term, with Guardiola’s City crashing out to Monaco in the round of sixteen. Though he is not yet certain about Spurs, who beat Dortmund in a tense opening game at Wembley, he thinks Liverpool “should get out of their group”, and that both Manchester sides “are capable of reaching the semi-finals”.

That said, the 42-year-old thinks the usual suspects will make it tough for every English team. Though he wistfully admits that Barcelona “aren’t what they were” as a footballing force, he says “Bayern Munich are always a tough side for anyone to face, Juventus will be right up there – especially after getting to the final last year – and Real Madrid are the team to beat”.

Of course, Madrid are a side renowned for their lavish spending. So what does Savage make of the amounts of money in football at the moment, both in terms of transfer fees and players’ wages? Are young players such as Kylian Mbappe – who receives an eye-watering £320,000 per week at PSG according to some reports – being corrupted by it all?

It depends, says Savage. “If they’re a proven youngster like Mbappe, then I say good luck to them [as regards their wages]. They’ve earned the right to earn the money that they earn.” What he does think is problematic, though, is the wages of unproven youngsters. “My only issue is if a young player has done nothing yet [at senior level] and is earning tens of thousands a week.”

In any case, Mbappe is known to be exceptionally ascetic for an eighteen-year-old. After Monaco effectively clinched the Ligue 1 title in May with a 2-0 win against Saint-Etienne, Mbappe was asked if he was going out partying to celebrate. His response? "I'm going home to recover."

Robbie Savage is taking part in the 2017 EE Wembley Cup final at Wembley Stadium connected by EE on Saturday 7th October. To view the latest episode of the Wembley Cup online series and purchase tickets for the live final go to: www.ee.co.uk/wembleycup