How Man City's four bogey teams have impacted Premier League title race vs Liverpool

Manchester City have been enjoying a great Premier league campaign to date this season, with the reigning champions claiming 23 wins and scoring an impressive 72 goals in the process.

Despite this, they find themselves behind title challengers Liverpool by two points following the Anfield club's comprehensive 4-0 victory over rivals Manchester United. City do have a game in hand however, as they take on Brighton at the Etihad Stadium this evening.

Should they win, City will reclaim top spot by just one point, demonstrating just how tight the Premier League title race is this season. But what has caused the race to be just so close this campaign? There is one fact that is fairly odd that provides the answer.

READ MORE: How Man City should line up vs Brighton

Of City’s 31 league games this season, they have failed to win eight of them, succumbing to five draws and three losses. What makes this statistic all the more unique is that all eight negative results came against the same four teams.

A pair of losses against Tottenham Hotspur, two draws versus Liverpool, stalemates against Southampton and a loss coupled with a draw when facing Crystal Palace have all prevented City from running away from their competition in the league as they did in 2018 and 2021.

It is worth assessing why these teams in particular have caused Pep Guardiola’s side such severe problems in their clashes this season both home and away, compared to the other teams in the league.

In the case of Tottenham and Southampton, both teams set up very defensively in the four fixtures against City, managing to stifle Guardiola's attack. This led to City only being able to muster three goals in over 360 minutes against them.

In the former’s case, the