How Man City’s title rivals currently fare with Pep Guardiola not the only boss facing major issues

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Manchester City made history in their previous Premier League season.

Specifically, City became the first side to win four consecutive Premier League trophies.

With 11 games played in this latest campaign, Pep Guardiola’s side are currently second in the table behind Liverpool – who are the only side other than City to win a league title in the past seven years.

The Blues are also currently four points above Arsenal – who have finished second behind the Manchester club in the past two campaigns.

After seeing his side lose their two previous league games, Guardiola admitted the international break has come at an ideal time for City given the extensive injury and fitness issues currently in the squad.

With now as good a time as any, let’s take a look at the current state of affairs concerning City’s title rivals and take a deeper dive into their current situations.

• Man City injury list 2024/25: Latest updates and potential return dates for sidelined stars

Liverpool

Following the departure of Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool have seen Arne Slot take to managing the Reds like a duck to water.

A 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Anfield in September is the only blemish on Liverpool’s Premier League record this season.

With the Reds looking like they’ll be in the mix to do what Klopp could only do once in nine years and win the title, City will need to make sure they beat the Merseyside club home and away to give them the edge when it matters.

Arsenal

After a fairly strong start to the campaign, Mikel Arteta’s side have – similarly to City – hit a sticky spot of form.

More specifically, the Gunners have only picked up two points from their four previous league matches.

Another similarity Arsenal have to City is the number of injury issues they’ve been handed recently to the likes of Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice, Riccardo Calafiori and Ben White.

Even though they’ve not been as consistent as Liverpool so far this season, it would be wrong to assume the North London club won’t be in or around the title race over the crucial months of the campaign.

Having only managed to snatch a late draw against the Gunners at the Etihad Stadium back in September – which happened to be the game Rodri suffered his knee injury – City will be desperate to beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in February.