Manchester City is only 5 points behind Liverpool who are leading the standings, I think 5 points is not something that is difficult enough for Manchester City to catch up with because there are still many matches left this season. Even for Liverpool, they could lose points and that would be a great opportunity for Manchester City to reduce the points gap.
I also believe that Manchester City's performance is not bad enough and two consecutive defeats are certainly not fair to say that Manchester City will have difficulty competing for the title.
Manchester City will target a lot of hope this season, they want to extend their record as a team that has won the title for the 5th time in a row. But still every season requires hard work and I think Pep Guardiola will be able to bring his team to victory in the upcoming matches.
5 points is number that can be said to be quite large but can also be an easy number to surpass for certain team that do have quite good playing quality, I think with that point difference there is still chance for Manchester City to surpass it and defend the title again.
Only answer is how Liverpool performance in the long term will they be able to maintain it well or experience some obstacles, I just hope Manchester City is able to realize all the dreams of the fans and can still see Pep with them for longer time.
The difference in points is not too big because there are still a lot of matches left this season but the problem now is how Manchester City can get out of their slump after Pep Guardiola's team failed to win a match in 4 consecutive matches and even their performance was very bad.
We have seen how Pep Guardiola can always overcome the problems in the Manchester City team in previous seasons so the same thing is also possible to happen this season, so I think it's all a matter of time and Manchester City can definitely rise and return to the path of competition for the PL title this season.