As City falter, can we dare to hope for the best title race in years?

JUST as the English top flight was beginning to feel depressingly like another one-club league, Manchester City have lost three games in four, including two on the bounce in the Premier League, to suggest they are fallible after all.

- Dan Kilpatrick

All three defeats have come without Rodri, City’s midfield lynchpin, who will serve the final game of a three-match ban when the champions return to action against Brighton after the international break — which suddenly looks a more open contest than before his suspension.

There are other factors in City’s dropoff but their over-reliance on Rodri has come as a surprise given the perceived depth of Pep Guardiola’s squad; another suspension or an injury to the Spaniard, and things might start to get really interesting.

City are also missing talisman Kevin de Bruyne, who is sidelined with a hamstring injury, while Ìlkay Gündoğan’s summer move to Barcelona has left a gaping hole in the midfield. Mateo Kovačić and Matheus Nunes, signed as replacements, are not on Gündoğan’s level, and Kovačić is lucky to be available for the Brighton game after somehow escaping a red card in Sunday’s 1-0 loss at Arsenal.

Erling Haaland is still Erling Haaland, although he is without a goal in three matches and, logically, it will be hard for the Norwegian to match last season’s extraordinary scoring feats when opponents are more aware of his threats — or, at least, how to limit his supply, as Arsenal did so effectively.