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.
So you mean that all this time Manchester City has really depended on De Bruyne? I excluded Haaland because of the poor performance that Manchester City has experienced since De Bruyne was hit by injury. If your assumption is correct, this condition makes Guardiola have to think again about finding an ideal replacement who is ready to carry out De Bruyne duties.
The situation that Manchester City is currently experiencing is very detrimental to them because they are increasingly falling behind the top of the standings due to losing 11 points in their last 6 matches. Now Manchester City steps are getting harder to return to the top of the standings after they were in fourth place.