Manchester City is indeed still the top favorite to win the Premier League despite their current form aligns with the general perception of the team's capabilities. I believe Manchester City remains strongest team in the tittle race even without Kevin de Bruyne. Arsenal is another favorite who need to have ability to learn from past experiences and perform better, because that's the the right mentality to be a champion.
Manchester City was originally favored by champions. But without the presence of KDB and Haaland I saw them losing their best performance. That can be seen from bad results in the last few matches. I think City should start thinking of finding De Bruyne's replacement because he has begun to retire. And I think that as long as De Bruyne and Haaland don't play City will continue to get bad results.
Yes, initially Manchester City was the favorite because at the start of the season Manchester City continued to show consistency, but entering the middle of the season Manchester City began to show signs of decline and it began to be difficult to stabilize their performance especially when Erling Haaland was injured. Manchester City had experienced 3 defeats and 4 draws from 17 match even though the match is still very long while last season Manchester City only had 5 defeats and 5 draws in 38 matches, we all don't know whether Manchester City will continue their winning record like last season or even be able to win a trophy because currently Manchester City is already 5 points behind from Arsenal who are at the top of the standings.
Meanwhile Arsenal won the match against Brighton with a score of 2:0 with this victory bringing Arsenal to the top of the standings again and shifting Liverpool to 2nd place while Liverpool drew with Manchester United. I think Liverpool can win this match to maintain its position at the top. It turns out Liverpool could not break through Manchester United's defense and Manchester were satisfied with this draw but they had to lose Diogo Dalot due to a red card.