When times have been tough in the past for Manchester City under Pep Guardiola, there has always been the sense they will pull through; it will be OK. Almost to the extent there has been little dramatic tension around them, only inevitability. Not now.
The City machine looks broken, the certainties that have driven them for so long absent, the control gone. They got exactly what they deserved on a highly charged Anfield occasion – another defeat, a sixth in seven matches in all competitions, a fourth in succession in the Premier League and it is almost impossible to see them defending their title from here.
