Man City have put themselves in their favourite position - and Arsenal know it

Manchester City beat Liverpool to move within four points of Premier League leaders Arsenal

If results before an international break always carried a little extra weight, then Manchester City's players will jet off for duty without any extra baggage today.

This weekend couldn't have gone much better for Pep Guardiola's side, who made it three wins in a week at the Etihad with a statement success against the champions. It was the first time they had beaten Liverpool or Arsenal in the league since April 2023, when they dismantled both here on their way to the treble.

Liverpool's own mini-resurgence was checked in Manchester. The relief of wins against Aston Villa and Real Madrid dissolving in a deluge and their title defence now looks a lost cause already.

It is Arsenal who will remain favourites, but their draw with Sunderland might just have exposed old frailties. Their defensive impregnability ended on Wearside and Mikel Arteta's team have a history of letting leads slip. They will be nervous front-runners and they now know the identity of their biggest challengers.

Liverpool might have a sense of injustice from Virgil van Dijk's equalising goal being disallowed, but they were second best throughout a one-sided contest. City are pretty much back to their best, and this version of Liverpool can't live with them.

Erling Haaland could even afford to miss a penalty to delay the party starting. He did eventually give City a deserved lead and Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku added goals to cap off a brilliant week for the Blues.

City were 13th when the September international break arrived, fifth when the action paused in October and are now sitting second in November. The next time the international calendar disrupts the action will be in March. There's only one place they can go now.

It's now one defeat in 14 for Guardiola's team and maybe the most assuring part of that is the way they recovered from that setback. A defeat to Aston Villa has been followed by victories against Swansea, Bournemouth, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, with 12 goals scored.

It's clear they are now the side most likely to threaten Arsenal and that will send a shudder down a spine or two in North London. Arsenal have been here before - and so have City.

They have become the perfect chasers in title races. They reeled Liverpool in in 2019/20 and have twice hauled back Arsenal, in 2022/23 and 2023/24. On both of those occasions, they only leapfrogged the Gunners with five games to go, so a four-point deficit after 11 games is not going to pose them any concerns.

As Guardiola always says of his teams, the challenge is to be there in the spring. You're not going to win the league now, but you could lose it, as City did last year..

This season, they are putting themselves in a position to challenge and that will be a worry to Arsenal. They look a better side this year, but the wait for a title now stretches into 21 seasons and most of those players carry baggage from previous duels with City.

Guardiola's side know how to pace themselves and how to shrug off a disappointing result, as they did at Villa Park. Can Arsenal do that without the title-winning muscle memory in their system? Or will a bad result bring introspection and regret?

You can be sure City will be ready to keep up the pressure, both on and off the pitch. They might be four points behind, but they would arguably rather be in this position than Arsenal's right now. The hunters have their prey in sight once again and it usually ends with a catch sooner or later.

---

Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis.

Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.

You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.

And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and you can also watch along on YouTube.