Pep Guardiola is right, the Premier League title reality for Liverpool is clear

Manchester City, playing a day later than Liverpool and Arsenal, is perhaps the forgotten contender in the Premier League title race. It wasn't convincing against Brentford, by any stretch, but it did get the three points over the line.

For a game not involving Liverpool in any way, there were plenty of Liverpool links (and not just that the Etihad side won without playing that well, which was a theme for the Reds in their opening games). Pep Lijnders, of course, was in the away dugout alongside Pep Guardiola — something that still needs some getting used to.

Ex-Reds trio Jordan Henderson, Sepp van den Berg and Caoimhin Kelleher, meanwhile, all started for Brentford — and Fabio Carvalho came off the bench late on. Between them, the Bees paid $94 million (£70 million) to Liverpool for the three players that it signed directly from Anfield.

The decisive moment in the game came from Erling Haaland, the Norwegian striker who already has nine Premier League goals this season. A good ball over the top from Josko Gvardiol fed his number nine and Van den Berg — a player Liverpool sold for $33 million (£25 million) — was easily outmuscled.

Perhaps it was the natural movement of a player who likes to drift to the left side, but Haaland seemed to have identified Van den Berg as a weak point to hit in the Brentford defense in the first half, at least.

At the start of this season, he appears to be back to his best after a below-par season last time around. Manchester City has other problems, but having a goalscorer of that level can paper over the cracks.

Gary Neville described Manchester City as "scruffy" in the build-up to the game. Each of the three teams in title contention, though — Liverpool, Arsenal and Guardiola's men — have scored a similar number of goals, with none having yet fully taken flight.

Oscar Bobb and Savinho are both livewires (as is Jeremy Doku, who came off the bench), but they each still have more work to do on their end product.

Tijjani Reijnders and Phil Foden have the potential to click as attacking number eights, though another injury for Rodri, who left the field on 22 minutes to be replaced by Nico Gonzalez, will be a worry.

So too would the gaps in behind; big chances were taken with Kevin Schade and Igor Thiago running through. Henderson was a stand-out, but Brentford offered little beyond him in terms of creativity to exploit it.

In the second half, Manchester City offered even less in attack than the Bees. It was Thiago who had the clearest opportunity — a one-versus-one — while the visitor in the whole game only had four attempts on target.

Even with Manchester City winning here, though, Guardiola's men, now only two points behind Liverpool, have a worse record than the Reds. They have lost two games too, the difference being a draw with Arsenal vs Liverpool's win.

Yet while there is a question mark over Manchester City generally and it has been a bad week for Liverpool, it is too early to be making concrete judgments on anyone. Arsenal, only a couple of weeks ago, was deemed still to be missing something when it lost late at Anfield.

"Your job (the media) is so brave because you say what is going to happen," Guardiola said yesterday. "I’m not able to do that. After seven games, to make an analysis, it’s too early."

It is only eight days since Paul Merson declared the title race to be on the verge of being over had Liverpool won at Crystal Palace and the Gunners lost to Newcastle.

But this weekend, it was the turn of Arsenal, a team that was being written off not long ago, and Manchester City, who needed Haaland to score his 11th goal in eight appearances in all competitions almost without touching the ball apart from that, to make the difference. At the same time, Liverpool lost again in dramatic fashion and didn't play well.

In time, though, Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Mohamed Salah should be much more free-flowing once their fitness and chemistry builds. In future weekends, it will be the Reds gaining ground.

"We know in football, every three or four days, things can change and momentum can change," Virgil van Dijk told reporters at Stamford Bridge. For those who have lost their heads, that might be worth bearing in mind.