After spending so much of this Premier League title race as the hunter, now Manchester City are the hunted. The treble-winners began the weekend by thrashing Luton Town 5-1 and then took their place on the sofa to watch Arsenal and Liverpool play their games.
Sunday could hardly have panned out better for Pep Guardiola's side, as Liverpool fell to a shock 1-0 loss at home to Crystal Palace before Unai Emery haunted his former side again as Aston Villa raided the Emirates Stadium and left with a 2-0 win.
City are now in pole position, leading Arsenal and Liverpool by two points after 32 matches, and this is often the period when Guardiola's side home in on their prize. Indeed, in the title races of 2018-19, 2021-22 and 2022-23 combined, City only dropped two points from their final six games when the title was still been in play. They won 15 out of 16 matches, drawing just once.
City's experience and ruthless character has led to many pundits concluding that the league might as well hand the title over to Kyle Walker right now and get the party started. But don't listen to the naysayers; this compelling three-way title race still has plenty to give and is far from over...