Whisper it, but .

It always feels like a bold call to make about side considering the way in which they tend to turn on the afterburners after Christmas, but this season feels significantly different.

There was almost no surprise in their latest defeat at Aston Villa. Unai Emery’s team were superb, but the moment Jhon Duran put them in front, everyone knew the result. This is not the City of old, and it’s difficult to see how they get back to that this season.

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We may have even reached a point where fans don’t even need to pay attention to what City are doing. The Reds could go 12 points clear of their rivals if they beat Tottenham later, and side will still have a game in hand by the end of play today.

Such is the malaise at the Etihad at the moment that even can’t pull them out of their tailspin. The Norwegian, who has taken goalscoring to ridiculous levels over the past couple of years, has .

"Of course, we are disappointed, it's not good enough. It's not good enough from me," Haaland confessed after their latest defeat. "We have to continue, we have to believe and we have to keep working hard.

“We have to continue. First I'm looking at myself, I haven't been doing things good enough, I haven't been scoring my chances. I have to do better, I haven't been good enough.”

That tells you everything you need to know about City right now. As much as they might be relying on Haaland to get them out of their rut, the blame surely lies with some of his other teammates who simply aren’t performing.

City are now just one league defeat away from equaling the amount of losses they accrued in the 2018/19 and 2021/22 seasons, when they pipped Liverpool to both titles by just a single point. The Reds will surely have no such fears this time around, at least from Guardiola’s side.

This is an unbelievable position that Slot and his team find themselves in. Of course, Chelsea and Arsenal will provide competition, but they certainly don’t look to be at the level of those City teams of the past.

You could argue Liverpool isn’t at the level of those sides either - - but no one has shown the level of consistency that this season’s Reds have so far. Just one defeat across all competitions is remarkable, especially when you consider the sides they’ve come up against in the Champions League.

They’ll still need a lot to go in their favor, especially with injuries - we are, after all, not even halfway through the season yet. Slot may also need some backing from FSG next month, not least when it comes to the futures of , and .

But this is an unbelievable position for Liverpool to be in - 15 games in, and City are already out of the running. They have to make the most of it.