Gary Neville’s former club Man Utd take on Fulham on Sunday at Craven Cottage (Picture: The Overlap) Gary Neville believes Manchester United are fortunate to be facing one ofthe few Premier League teams in a greater state of disarray than his old side this weekend. United’s abysmal start to the new season took a further turn for the worse last night when they let an early two-goal lead slip against Brighton at Old Trafford and crashed to another ignominious early Carabao Cup exit. After restoring a sense of optimism during his interim spell, which culminated in Champions League qualification, Michael Carrick’s future is firmly in the spotlight just three months on from signing a two-year contract. Defeat in last weekend’s Manchester derby against 10-man City has left Carrick’s side a distant eight points adrift of the top of the table with just four games played and another setback at Craven Cottage would leave them reeling heading into the international break. Sign up for In The Mixer, Metro's football newsletter Get exclusive analysis and previews of the biggest games every Friday. Sign up now for free. Neville, however, is confident that Fulham represent the perfect opposition given their own early season teething problems. New manager Alvaro Arbeola has made a less than auspicious star to the task of succeeding Marco Silva and his new team are currently in the relegation zone, despite earning a creditable point following a goalless draw at Anfield last weekend. Despite that encouraging performance and a Carabao Cup win over West Ham, Neville fears the writing is on the wall for the Cottagers this season. {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Carrick accepts blame after Man Utd squander 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to Brighton in the EFL Cup","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2026\/09\/17\/2862468821988260158\/480x270_MP4_2862468821988260158.mp4","description":"Carrick has demanded a reaction after his side were booed off the pitch at Old Trafford.","duration":"T8M","height":270,"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/09\/17\/07\/111302021-0-image-a-145_1789624871108.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-09-17T07:01:14+0100","width":480} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page window.addEventListener('metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded', function(data) { if (typeof(data.detail) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === 'undefined') { return; } var player = data.detail.carousel.el_; var container = player.closest('.metro-video-player'); var placeholder = container.querySelector('.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder'); if (placeholder) { container.removeChild(placeholder); container.classList.add('metro-video-player--related-videos-loaded'); } }); ‘United will win this,’ a confident Neville stated on The Overlap. ‘I think United win Sunday. ‘To be fair having watched Fulham a couple of times I think they’re really going to struggle. I don’t know how they actually… just everything about them. ‘To be fair you’re probably clipping this up on Sunday night, but everything about Fulham for me now looks like they could be in real trouble. I think 2-1.’ Regardless of Fulham’s current form, United will need a much improved performance in light of another capitulation that Carrick termed unacceptable. An evening that began with teenager Shea Lacey marking his first senior start with a dream goal and Mason Mount adding a second in the 10th minute ended in furious fans unloading at full -time. Another disastrous night for Michael Carrick (Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire) Brighton became the first side since 1976 to overturn a two-goal deficit and win at Old Trafford as Charalampos Kostoulas, Pascal Gross and Maxim De Cuyper secured a thoroughly deserved 3-2 third round comeback victory. ‘I mean, a couple of smallish things end u