Man City are now in top-four battle, unlikely side who are unbeatable at home

Was this the weekend when Manchester City's title bid officially went up in smoke?

Pep Guardiola and his players looked lost at Anfield, overrun by an Arne Slot team who are now 11 points ahead of them after a 2-0 win.

With wins for Arsenal (2nd) and Chelsea (3rd), the real question now is: who is Liverpool's biggest challenge in this title race? It's all fascinatingly ready as we head into December.

City, who are fifth, are now just four points ahead of Manchester United, who now have peace and order in their ranks thanks to head coach Ruben Amorim.

Meanwhile, it's another frustrating weekend at the bottom, with Southampton, Ipswich Town, Wolves, Crystal Palace, Everton and West Ham all winless.

In the latest installment of this weekly column, Mail Sport picks five of the most interesting talking points from the Premier League this weekend.

The city has lost faith

To see Pep Guardiola take the bait of the tantalizing Liverpool crowd as he held up six fingers to represent his six Premier League titles, and then confess to the press that his players 'can't handle' the pressure at the moment, was quite a bit.

“I need to see the players come back and get better and better physically,” he admitted after the defeat to Liverpool left them 11 points behind the Reds.

'It's difficult in the middle of the season because we can't change. It's another one and we can't expect more than this.

'You have to understand what we have done. The players want it, they suffer from it and they want to do it. It's normal.

“We're not used to this for a lot of reasons, but a lot of things are happening. The teams are good and we can't cope now.'

If a team is capable of a miracle, many will point to Manchester City, which has been their pedigree in recent years.

But this team feels like a pale imitation, one that has grown old and tired and is aging through the game.

The fluidity they are synonymous with eludes them as they look defensively at sixes and sevens and, dare I say, the belief in another exciting title race seems to have been washed out of them.

They sit seventeenth in the Champions League and fifth in the Premier League, just four points ahead of Aston Villa, who are eleventh.

Before the season started, City defended the league title and won it again, but now I see a team that doesn't seem to believe in themselves. Incredibly, they are in a fierce battle to even make the top four now.

Home is where the heart is for bees

No team in the Premier League has had as dominant a record at home this season as Thomas Frank's Brentford.

Forget Anfield. Forget the Emirates Stadium. Free-scoring Brentford are a force to be reckoned with at the Gtech Community Stadium – and Leicester City could be their latest victim.

Brentford are one of only three teams to have an unbeaten record at home this season (Arsenal and Brighton are the other two).

Frank's side have won six and drawn one of their seven home games, scoring 22 goals and conceding 12.

Spurred on by Kevin Schade's hat-trick, Brentford have now scored three or more goals in four consecutive home games for the first time since 1984.

“It was a very good performance and perhaps the best of this season,” said Frank.

'We controlled and dominated until the end of the match, even though we didn't know what awaited us.'

So much fuss was made about Brentford losing Ivan Toney in the summer and how that would be their downfall. Instead, Frank has strength in goalscoring numbers and has produced home form that is the envy of the rest of the division.

Amorim's high standards can take United far

Manchester United fans will want to get carried away with what they have seen under Ruben Amorim so far, with back-to-back wins in all competitions and seven goals in two games.

But the reason why there should be so much belief around Manchester United right now is that Amorim is far from satisfied.

After his brace in the Europa League, Amorim challenged Rasmus Hojlund to become even better and more effective as a striker. He put him on the bench for Sunday's match against Everton.

After his brace against the Toffees on Sunday, Marcus Rashford was told by his manager that he can do a lot better. Amad Diallo, who had two assists, faced a similar challenge.

It was put to United's new head coach that the 4-0 win over Everton at Old Trafford was the largest margin of victory for a permanent manager in their first home Premier League game for the club. Things like that don't interest him.

Amorim has a huge job to do, but is now only four points behind Manchester City and the top four – which felt like a utopia under Erik ten Hag – is firmly back on the map.

“You feel we still have a long way to go,” said Amorim, who wanted people to keep their feet on the ground ahead of Wednesday night's visit to Arsenal.

'You feel that in the first few minutes when we were okay, but then Everton controlled the game. Then we scored at the right time and that changed the game.

'You can't just concentrate on the result, you have to concentrate on how the result appeared. Just like before the match, we have so much to do, but it is better to work with victories. Let's focus more on the performance than the result.

'You feel it during the match. It's not a series of top performances, it's a rollercoaster of achievements. There are times when we are good, but there are also times when we have to suffer. We need time to train and improve.”

Amorim raises standards wherever possible in every department of the club and on the player side it is a constantly evolving process.

He has shown in the first few weeks that confidence in him and success will follow.

Better late than never for Enzo

A lot of praise can be attributed to Enzo Maresca at Chelsea, but it is especially appropriate when it comes to the improvement we are seeing in Enzo Fernandez.

The World Cup winner, who joined Chelsea in January 2023 for an eye-watering £106.7 million, was a slow burn. It is now inflamed.

He fell out of favor at the start of this season and ended up on the bench, but it has had the desired effect. Fernandez has responded in kind and is now a real force to be reckoned with, as Aston Villa discovered on Sunday.

The Argentine didn't score a single Premier League goal last season but has now plundered two in two in a more attacking role that may suit the deeper roles of Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia.

His goal against Villa means he has had four goals in his last three league games: two goals and two assists.

For Maresca, an adjustment to Fernandez's position, with an emphasis on attacking threat, is key to his captain's improvement.

“Exactly,” said the Blues boss.

'He was usually in those positions, in the penalty area. We had no contact with him during the action when we scored.

'It is very difficult to score goals outside the penalty area. Usually all the goals happen from the penalty area, so we need the two wingers, the number 9 in the penalty area. We need players to stand inside the penalty area and try to score goals.'

The price tag will always hang around Fernandez's neck, but little by little he is starting to pay it back.

Johnson still needs to get BETTER

A conversation this weekend was about the most impressive performers I've seen this season and I noticed no one in that group mentioned Brennan Johnson.

The Welshman scored again as Tottenham drew against Fulham and has remained incredibly effective since taking to social media earlier this season following a stream of abuse.

Also of note, Johnson is one of only two Premier League players to score more than ten non-penalty goals in all competitions this season.

The other? Erling Haaland of Manchester City. Not a bad company to find yourself in.

But what frustrates Tottenham fans – and sometimes his boss Ange Postecoglou – is that his overall performances leave a lot to be desired.

He can often seem out of sync with his teammates and against AS Roma he faced the wrath of Postecoglou on the touchline during the week.

'He just said you have to be more positive. That's all he needs from all our players, trying to be positive, lead the way and play forward,” Johnson said of Postecoglou's sticking.

'I think I was definitely guilty of playing back too much in the first half. So yeah, it's something I've definitely adopted.”

Ten goals and Johnson is still under the radar, but if he can fine-tune the rest of his game he will be impossible to ignore for the rest of the league.