Manchester City have lost their belief following 2-0 defeat by Liverpool at Anfield
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By NATHAN SALT
Published: 07:00 EST, 2 December 2024 | Updated: 07:00 EST, 2 December 2024
Was this the weekend where Manchester City’s title bid officially went up in smoke?
Pep Guardiola and his players looked lost at Anfield, overran by an Arne Slot team that are now 11 points clear of them after a 2-0 win.
With wins for Arsenal (2nd) and Chelsea (3rd), the real question now is: who is the biggest challenge to Liverpool in this title race? It’s all fascinatingly poised as we enter December.
City, who are fifth, are now just four points clear of Manchester United, who now have law and order in their ranks thanks to head coach Ruben Amorim.
Meanwhile, it’s another frustrating weekend at the bottom with Southampton, Ipswich Town, Wolves, Crystal Palace, Everton and West Ham all winless.
In the latest instalment of this weekly column, Mail Sport picks out five of the most interesting talking points to emerge from the Premier League over the weekend.
Liverpool inflicted a 2-0 win on Manchester City that has huge ramifications in the title race
Pep Guardiola's side might have now seen their bid for a fifth successive title go up in smoke
Mikel Arteta's Arsenal meanwhile are in second after a thrashing of West Ham but trail Liverpool by nine points
City have lost belief
To see Pep Guardiola take the bait from a goading Liverpool crowd as he held up six fingers to represent his six Premier League titles, and then confess in press that his players ‘can’t handle’ the pressure right now, was quite something.
‘I have to see the players come back and be better and better physically,’ he admitted after defeat to Liverpool left them 11 points adrift of the Reds.
‘It is difficult in the middle of the season because we cannot change. It is another one and we cannot expect more than this.
‘You have to understand what we have done. The players want it, they suffer it and they want to do it. It is normal.
‘We're not used to this for many reasons, but many, many things happen. Teams are good and we can't handle it right now.’
If any team is capable of a miracle many will point to Manchester City, such has been their pedigree in recent years.
But this team feels a pale imitation, one that has grown old, weary, and is getting older by the game.
Guardiola took the bait from a goading Anfield and held up six fingers to represent his six titles
Man City's trademark fluidity is eluding them while the belief needed for another title charge seems to have flushed out of them
The fluidity they are synonymous with is evading them, while defensively they look at sixes and sevens and, dare I say, the belief of another stirring title race looks to have been flushed out of them.
They are 17th in the Champions League table and 5th in the Premier League, just four points ahead of Aston Villa, who are 11th.
Before the season started I had City defending the league title and winning it again but now I see a team that doesn’t seem to believe in themselves. Incredibly, they are in a fierce battle to even make the top four now.
Home is where the heart is for Bees
No team in the Premier League has as dominant a record on their home turf this season than Thomas Frank’s Brentford.
Forget Anfield. Forget the Emirates Stadium. Free-scoring Brentford are a force to be reckoned with at the GTech Community Stadium - and Leicester City were to be their latest victims.
Brentford are one of only three teams to boast an unbeaten record at home this season (Arsenal and Brighton are the other two).
Frank’s side have won six and drawn one of their seven home games, scoring 22 goals and conceding 12 in the process.
Brentford's GTech Community Stadium has become a fortress for Thomas Frank and his Bees
No team in the Premier League has as dominant a record on their home turf this season
Spurred on this time by Kevin Schade’s hat-trick, Brentford have now scored three or more goals in four consecutive home league matches for the first time since 1984.
‘It was a very good performance and maybe the best this season,’ Frank said.
‘We controlled and dominated until the end of the game even though we didn’t know what we were going to face.’
So much was made of Brentford losing Ivan Toney in the summer and how that would be their undoing. Instead, Frank has got strength in numbers for goals and established a home form that is the envy of the rest of the division.
Amorim’s high standards can take United far
Manchester United fans want to get carried away from what they have seen so far under Ruben Amorim, with back-to-back wins in all competitions and seven goals in two games.
But the reason why there should be so much belief around Manchester United right now is that Amorim is far from satisfied.
After his brace in the Europa League, Amorim challenged Rasmus Hojlund to become even better and even more effective as a centre forward. He dropped him to the bench for Sunday’s game versus Everton.
Ruben Amorim picked up the highest ever winning margin for a manager on their home debut in the Premier League
After his brace against the Toffees on Sunday, Marcus Rashford was told by his manager that he can be a lot better. Amad Diallo, who had two assists, received a similar challenge.
It was put to United’s new head coach that the 4-0 win over Everton at Old Trafford was the biggest margin of victory for a permanent manager in their first home match in the Premier League for the club. Stuff like that doesn’t concern him.
Amorim has a huge job on his hands but now finds himself just four points behind Manchester City and the top four - which felt a pipe dream under Erik ten Hag - is firmly back on the cards.
‘You can feel that we have a long way to go,’ Amorim said, keen for people to keep feet on the ground ahead of Wednesday night’s trip to Arsenal.
‘You can feel that in the first few minutes, where we were OK, but then Everton controlled the game. Then we got the goals in the right moment and that changed the game.
‘You can't just focus on the result, you have to focus on the way the result appeared. Like before the game, we have so much to do, but it is better to work with victories. Let's focus on the performance more than the result.
‘You can feel it during the game. It isn't a line of top performances, it is a rollercoaster of performances. We have some moments when we are good but then we have moments when we have to suffer. We need time to train and improve.’
Amorim is driving up standards across every department at the club where possible and on the playing side it is a constantly evolving process.
Despite scoring twice on Sunday, Amorim admitted that Marcus Rashford (left) can still be a lot better
He’s shown in these first few weeks that trust in him and success will follow.
Better late than never for Enzo
Lots of credit can be attributed to Enzo Maresca at Chelsea but it is particularly apt when it comes to the improvement seen in Enzo Fernandez.
The World Cup winner, who joined Chelsea in January 2023 for an eye-watering £106.7million, has been something of a slow burn. He has now ignited.
He fell out of favour and to the bench at the start of this season but it has had the desired effect as Fernandez has responded in kind and is now a real force to be reckoned with, as Aston Villa discovered on Sunday.
The Argentine didn’t score a single Premier League goal last season but has now plundered two in two in a more attacking role that perhaps plays to his strengths better than the deeper roles occupied by Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia.
His goal versus Villa means he has had a hand in four goals in his last three league games - two goals and two assists.
For Maresca, a tweak to Fernandez’s position, with an emphasis on attacking threat, holds the key to his captain’s improvement.
Enzo Fernandez (right) has been something of a slow burn since his £106.7million arrival in 2023
‘Exactly,’ the Blues boss said.
‘For most times, he was in those positions, inside the box. We didn’t contact with him in the action when we scored.
‘It is very difficult to score goals from outside of the box. Usually all the goals happen from inside the box, so we need the two wingers, the No 9 inside the box. We need players inside the box to try and score goals.’
The price tag will always hand around Fernandez’s neck, but bit by bit he’s beginning to chip away at paying it back.
Johnson must get even BETTER
A conversation at the weekend centred on the most impressive performers seen this season and it struck me how nobody in that group mentioned Brennan Johnson.
Scoring again as Tottenham drew to Fulham, the Welshman has continued to be incredibly effective ever since he packed social media in following a stream of abuse earlier this season.
Note, too, that Johnson is one of only two Premier League players to score 10+ non-penalty goals across all competitions this season.
Brennan Johnson and Erling Haaland are the only two Premier League stars with 10 or more non-penalty goals in all competitions this term
The other? Manchester City’s Erling Haaland. Not bad company to find yourself in.
But what is frustrating Tottenham fans - and at times his boss Ange Postecoglou - is that his overall performances can leave a lot to be desired.
He can often appear out of sync with team-mates and against AS Roma during the week he faced the wrath of Postecoglou on the touchline.
‘He just said keep being more positive. That’s all he needs from all of our players, trying to be positive, on the front foot and play forward,’ Johnson said of Postecoglou’s pasting.
‘I think in the first half, I was definitely probably guilty of playing back too much. So, yeah, it’s something that I definitely took onboard.’
Ten goals and Johnson is still going under the radar but if he can fine tune the rest of his game he will become impossible for the rest of the league to ignore.