Rio Ferdinand is involved in heated on-air debate with Jermaine Jenas after being accused of showing ‘bias’ towards Man United: ‘Why are you questioning me?!’

Rio Ferdinand and Jermaine Jenas were involved in a heated on-air exchange after the former Manchester United defender tipped the Red Devils to finish in the top four this season.

United have lost eight of their 19 league games this season and currently find themselves down in seventh place, but produced an impressive comeback to beat Aston Villa 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Having reached the halfway stage of the season, Ferdinand and Jenas were asked to make their top four predictions and Jenas picked Manchester City to win the title again, with Arsenal taking second, Liverpool third and Aston Villa finishing fourth.

But Ferdinand was having none of it, and backed United – who lost at Nottingham Forest on Saturday – to get back into the Champions League spots, even hinting that it may not be that difficult for them.

‘Who said sneak in? I think Manchester United will be there [top four],’ Ferdinand said on TNT Sports following Chelsea‘s 3-2 win at Luton on Saturday afternoon.

‘I don’t think they [INEOS] will have any bearing on it at the moment because they’re not going to have a bearing on this next transfer window, they are going to be observers, looking and seeing what’s going on and the big challenges behind the scenes they can then change.

‘But I think Manchester United have had one of the most injury-ravaged teams this season, come January a lot of those players will be back and I think they will have a big impact on this team.

‘Manchester United are still in touch, and with a bigger squad back playing, getting results, they’ll hopefully be back in the top four.’

Jenas was taken aback by Ferdinand’s claim given he has been critical of his ex-club, especially after they crashed out of Europe earlier this month.

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