No team has retained the Premier League title since Manchester United in 2009 and if Manchester City are to arrest that trend they will have to do so from some way back.
A second shock defeat in five days, this time at the hands of Leicester, leaves City seven points off leaders Liverpool, and now behind Tottenham in third.
Of greater concern though, was a display that exposes serious concerns about their ability to close that gap. Defensively, City were a mess and in attack there was often miscommunication and a paucity of ideas. To compound the result, Fabian Delph was shown a straight red card late on for a tackle that claimed the ball but finished with his studs into Ricardo Pereira’s knee.
Liverpool showed the form of champions as they increased their lead at the top of the Premier League to six points by hammering an abject Newcastle United 4-0 at Anfield.
Goals from Dejan Lovren, Mohamed Salah, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabinho did the damage as Liverpool’s chances of a first…
