Liverpool FC struggles show Man City summer reshuffle has changed title race

Over the last few seasons conversations regarding the Premier League title race have centered around two teams, and for good reason.

The last five Premier League titles have been won by either Manchester City or Liverpool - City four times, Liverpool once - and in four of those five seasons the two teams have finished first and second in the standings. Even in the 2020/21 lockdown season when Jurgen Klopp's side finished 17 points behind the Blues, City's meetings with Liverpool were regarded as the most important of the league campaign.

Just two months into the new season though, it might be time to acknowledge that City's closest league challenger does not in fact play at Anfield. Following a thrilling 3-2 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday, Liverpool now found themselves 13 points adrift of Pep Guardiola's side - 14 off table-toppers Arsenal - albeit with a game in-hand.

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Last season's title race taught City fans and neutrals alike not to be fooled by points deficits inflated by games-in-hand, but even when that is taken into account, Liverpool currently look a shell of the side that pushed City all the way in 2018/19 and 2021/22 and won the title in 2019/20.

While offensively Liverpool aren't doing too badly - 20 goals scored in eight games is the joint-third best in the division - at the back and in midfield they have been horrendous. Virgil van Dijk appears to have lost the attributes that prompted many to label him the world's best defender in recent years, while Trent Alexander-Arnold has been showing the positional awareness of a seven-year-old.

In midfield things haven't been much better; Thiago Alcantara has impressed