Manchester City is a classic contender for the title and only mistakes from the other teams that allow it to stay the first. Several times Manchester City was running behind other teams like Arsenal but at the end they jump in the first place and win the title.
As long as Man City can continue to consistently win, or at least only draw from their strong rivals, yes City's chance to defend the EPL title for the umpteenth time remains big. Moreover, they are still with the same squad, the same coach, and the strength that may be even greater and consistent because they learned from last season's experience. The biggest challenge and they are targeting is to win the UCL, because last season it was taken over by their fierce rival, Real Madrid.
Yeah, indeed, at the moment Manchester City is still the favorite team but we can't conclude anything overall yet at least we have to wait until mid season and we will see which teams have the potential to be contenders or even win the title. At the start of the season Erling Haaland already indicated that he did not want to lose his place on the top scorers list and he has scored 3 goals in the last 2 games.