I don't see City in a position of taking over the lead from Liverpool because no one knows when they will be back go form.
The gap difference between Manchester City and Liverpool is increasing everyweek. I don’t think Manchester City will be able to cover it up, and Pep Guardiola doesn’t even have a solution to the current Manchester City problem yet, so I am not even expecting their performance to improve soon. Arsenal has taken over Manchester City's second position, currently, Manchester City is in 5th position, which is really a bad one. I don’t think anyone will believe that Manchester City will be in their current position, I don’t think Manchester City will be able to win the Premier League title this season, all they should be fighting for is for them to end the season in the top 4.
3 days before the game against Liverpool, Guardiola said the following:
Pep Guardiola: “Changing our entire squad? I don't completely agree”.
“Three months ago we won Premier League, we were in the FA Cup final and we arrived in the Champions League quarter-finals, defeated by playing extraordinary vs Real Madrid”.
“It's the same team!”.
source: https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1862483135541178767This is Guardiola's mistake, he thinks that since Manchester City won the league last season, then they would have the same performance this season, but he is forgetting that in the last few seasons Liverpool were not doing well, Chelsea were not doing well. Only Arsenal were doing well, but Arsenal are not a very strong team, so much so that in European competitions they have been a disaster in the sense of not being able to get very far, so in my opinion Manchester City won the last 2 Premier League because they were lucky that many other Premier League teams were weak. But this season the other teams are better and he does not want to admit that his squad is weaker.