Manchester City find themselves having to play catch-up at the top of the Premier League table.
As things stand, City are five points behind league leaders Liverpool, who have won 28 points out of a possible 33 from 11 games played.
Pep Guardiola has seen his side win seven, draw two and lose two of their 11 league matches, scoring 22 goals and conceding 13 along the way.
City’s two previous league games saw them get beat on the South Coast, first by Bournemouth and then Brighton & Hove Albion, with both matches seeing the champions on the wrong end of a 2-1 scoreline.
With Guardiola admitting the current international break has come at an opportune time for City, a pundit and former Premier League player has made a claim about the Manchester club’s chances of closing the gap with Arne Slot’s side.
Danny Murphy says City need to fix one issue to catch Liverpool
While discussing City’s dismal run of form on talkSPORT, Danny Murphy gave this assessment on the matter and how the Blues could catch Liverpool at the top of the table.
He said: “I just think at the moment they’re having a little wobble, a little bad spell.
“Let’s not forget they’ve never been after 10 games flying in the league in any year they’ve won it. They always start a bit slow and a bit, up and down.
“Well, of course they are [capable of catching Liverpool], look, they play Liverpool in about two weeks. If they win that game all of a sudden, it’s back on.
“Are they capable of beating Liverpool? Of course they are. They just need their better players back.
“Defensively, that’s their problem at the minute. They’re still making chances, scoring goals, the defence is their problem.
“And when you’ve got that many players missing, you’re going to be more vulnerable and most susceptible, they’ve got young kids playing.”
Andy Robertson isn’t writing City off
Having faced off against the Blues in title races previously, Liverpool full-back Andy Robertson backed City to bounce back from their current troubles, saying this on the subject.
He said: “They are going through a tough moment with injuries but they have a quality squad and I am sure they will come back.
“They always finish the league strong. Just now we are ahead of them and if we keep winning games we will stay ahead but there is a long time to go. We have to keep the momentum we’ve got just now.”
| Premier League | Matches | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals Scored | Goals Conceded | Clean Sheets | Points |
| Liverpool | 11 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 6 | 6 | 28 |
| Manchester City | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 22 | 13 | 2 | 23 |
As Murphy mentioned, City will be taking on the Reds for the first time this season next month at Anfield.
As the former midfielder also mentioned, the Blues have been dealing with an unfortunate number of injury and fitness issues to various members of their squad over recent weeks.
From City’s point of view, everyone at the club will undoubtedly be hoping that they have as many players available to take on Liverpool as possible given the importance of this big game.
