Man City vs Arsenal has been the title-deciding fixture for the past two seasons, and while it wasn’t the case this year, it was possibly a title eliminator for Man City while keeping Arsenal in the race.

Man City have had the upper hand over Arsenal in each of the last two seasons, beating them to the title on each occasion. But this year it’s Arsenal who are coming out on top, but unfortunately for them it isn’t that easy and now Liverpool are their main title contenders, still with a six-point lead and a game in hand.

Man City have fallen off the pace this season, but it looked like Pep had managed to bring some stability and form back to his team. That was until this weekend when they were taken apart by Arsenal at the Emirates.

There was a lot for Arsenal to be excited about, with Myles Lewis-Skelly being one of the standout players and fellow teenager Ethan Nwaneri also making the scoresheet in the 5-1 romp. It was the first time a team have beaten Pep Guardiola’s team by four goals. Arsenal were great, but it felt like they didn’t need to be in order to beat Man City on the day.

The big problem for City is that teams no longer fear them. They had been so dominant for so many seasons under Pep, but teams now plan City believing they can win, and often proving to be right. City seem to make too many mistakes and are too open, and with some new recruits and a new contract for Halaand working on the pressing and making the middle more solid will be Pep’s main objective.

The biggest danger to City is the space behind them. Every team they face is hoping that City lose their focus when they get the ball, and teams know they have to be direct by putting one of their quick players on the ball behind them. This is where a lot of teams hurt City and will keep hurting them if Pep doesn’t address that.

After the FA Cup game against Leyton Orient, Real Madrid will be looking to explore that space for sure.