Manchester City seem to be down a lot in this season. They have worse performances, more instability and they are giving more hope and opportunities to other clubs to take them down in a single match and also take over the Premier League crown.
Manchester City will have quite a hard time maintaining what they got last season because currently many teams are showing big changes so Manchester City will not have it easy. Aston Villa became a nightmare for Manchester City in the 15th match because they were able to balance the game and in the end managed to beat Manchester City with one goal at home.
Other clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal are seriously competing with Manchester City for the league title. Arsenal with a failed attempt in last season surely want to do something better in this season. Liverpool with Klopp is a biggest competitor of Manchester City in recent seasons and they do want to win a second Premier League title with Klopp.
Pep will have lot of works to do with Manchester City as well as with himself to defend the title. Manchester City with their deep player resource will still have big advantage than Arsenal and Liverpool in a long season but they have to be careful.
This season's competition will be much more exciting where Arsenal and Liverpool will be strong challengers to Manchester City and so far both have managed to be at the top of the standings. Manchester City was thrown into the top four of the standings after suffering defeat to Aston Villa last night so it is quite profitable for Arsenal and Liverpool at the top of the standings after winning the match. Aston Villa has been a surprising team this season because they managed to become a top three team by relying on the quality of their players.
The season is still quite long and there are a number of crucial matches that must force Arsenal and Liverpool to play more consistently if they don't want their position in the standings to shift like what happened to Arsenal last season. If Arsenal don't learn like the previous season, it will be quite difficult for them to emerge as champions, because in the last 10 matches Manchester City were able to overtake Arsenal's position last season so they emerged as champions.