Wayne Rooney has revealed his ‘favourite’ to win the Premier League after Manchester City thumped Liverpool to close the gap on Arsenal.
Man City produced an ominously strong performance to beat the defending champions 3-0 in Pep Guardiola’s 1,000th game as a manager.
Erling Haaland broke the deadlock with a deflected header shortly after having a penalty saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.
Reds captain Virgil van Dijk thought he had equaliser for Liverpool but his powerful header was controversially ruled out for offside.
The decision was widely criticised by pundits and Man City took full advantage of the reprieve, doubling their lead on the stroke of half-time through Nico Gonzalez.
The impressive Jeremy Doku put the game to bed with a curled strike on the hour mark, Man City running out convincing winners to climb to second in the Premier League.
Guardiola’s side, sitting four points behind the Gunners, now look set to mount the biggest challenge to Arsenal’s title bid.
The north London outfit have been in sensational form this season – only losing one game – but conceded an injury-time goal in a disappointing 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Saturday.
Arsenal still boast a four-point lead over Man City and sit seven places above struggling Liverpool and Rooney is backing the Gunners to end their 22-year wait for a league title.
Asked for his take on the Premier League title race, Rooney said on his BBC podcast: ‘I think it will be difficult for Liverpool now.
‘I know Arsenal dropped points at the weekend but you look at their form overall and the way Man City are coming into a great run, it will be difficult for Liverpool.
‘But it’s still early on the season so you never know. I just think Arsenal and Man City are the two favourites now.
‘Arsenal will be a little bit nervous about Man City coming up but I think it will be one of them two. I still probably edge towards Arsenal. I have Arsenal as slight favourites.’
Liverpool won the Premier League by ten points last season but their title defence is proving to be disastrous.
The Reds have lost five of their 11 league games to slip eight points adrift of early pacesetters Arsenal.
Speaking after the Man City setback, Slot said it was futile discussing Liverpool’s title chances until they get back to their normal levels.
‘It was a very good start of the week and a very bad end to the week,’ Slot said. ‘Today, I don’t think, apart from that decision, that it was ever gong to be our game.
‘In general they were the better team – we need to improve – but I didn’t need this game to know this. I saw a team trying to come back into the game, but it wasn’t enough today and that is clear.
‘Last season when were eight points clear and it didn’t feel like it was done already.
‘We shouldn’t talk about the the number one position, we should focus on our performance that needs to be better.’