This is the 4th season for Manchester City to defend the Premier League title, will they be able to defend it next season? I can't predict this with certainty, because in the Premier League it will be very difficult to predict, because the league is very competitive. However, if you look at their performance this season, in my opinion their performance has dropped a little and maybe next season it can be more than this.
One thing I see from them, they have a strong foundation, so that's good for them, so to compete I think they can still compete, but to be able to defend the title I can't predict with certainty. because next season I think several clubs will be able to improve, and one of them is Arsenal where every season they continue to improve and it is not impossible that next season they will be much better than this season. Chelsea is also showing improvement, maybe they will be a threat next season if they succeed in improving their performance.
In the last 4 seasons, the competition for the Premier League trophy has been very competitive, but in the end we only saw City emerge as champions, Pep Guardiola fleet was able to perform more consistently than its other competitors. Arsenal in the last two seasons have tried to break City dominance, as well as Liverpool who have entered the race, but both teams lost their balance at important moments.
To predict who are the strong candidates to win the trophy next season, we can look at the preparations and movements of all Premier League contestants in the transfer window, perhaps Arsenal will be one of the most serious title challengers after City. Pep Guardiola is still staying at the Etihad, and he still has the best squad at the moment, of course to surpass them all the contestants have to build a better squad.
It is true, City will definitely find it difficult to retain the trophy next season, where all the contestants will definitely reshuffle the depth of their squad in the transfer window. Apart from that, perhaps this season the competition relatively easy because clubs like United and Chelsea are experiencing a decline in performance. Likewise, Liverpool lost stability towards the end of the season, so that the axis of competition was only created between City and Arsenal.