Manchester City suffered a surprising 2-1 defeat in the hands of Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon while Arsenal were also defeated 1-0 at Newcastle.
Though Liverpool continued their good form in the league with a 2-1 win over Brighton and Hove, Pep Guardiola has said he thinks it will take a lower points tally to win the Premier League title this season.
At least 89 points has been needed to finish first in the last three years, and 90+ in six of the last eight campaigns. But it might be difficult in such a fixture-laden season for those sorts of tallies to be matched again.
Liverpool are currently leading the table with 25 points after ten games but the coming month will have a huge say in the season.
City are already feeling the effects of the busy schedule and, while Guardiola said he does think it will take a lower points tally to win the title this season, he does not want to use the ample injuries as an excuse.
“If we had five more days to prepare we would have been better, or maybe not, who knows,” said the City boss. “I do not want to put it down for the calendar. Now it looks like [an excuse] because we lost a game.
“The reality is they [Bournemouth] won, I congratulate them. In the previous seasons we played a lot of games. Maybe if we go to the World Cup and play in the last stages we are going to play almost 70 games.
“It comes from the previous seasons because you have injuries. It’s going to happen and we have to handle it and have the perfect amount of training sessions to games. Our physical condition is to arrive as well as possible to play games. This is what it is. We cannot do anything and we cannot practise.”
Liverpool are currently the most consistent team in the Premier League but the Merseyside club have a mountain of fixtures to deal with over the coming months which could see them drop points.
It’s left to see if Manchester City will be able build on this and push for a spot at the top. The Citizens are known for their winning mentality and cannot be underestimated.
