Wayne Rooney has revealed his ‘favourite’ to win the Premier League after Manchester City thumped Liverpool to shut 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 choice 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.
Get personalised updates on Arsenal on a regular basis
Get up to seek out news in your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Join to our newsletter after which select your team within the link we’ll send you so we will get football news tailored to you.
The impressive Jeremy Doku put the sport to bed with a curled strike on the hour mark, Man City running out convincing winners to climb to second within the Premier League.
Guardiola’s side, sitting 4 points behind the Gunners, now look set to mount the most important 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 finish their 22-year wait for a league title.
Asked for his tackle the Premier League title race, Rooney said on his BBC podcast: ‘I feel it can be difficult for Liverpool now.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to an internet
browser that
supports HTML5
video
‘I do know Arsenal dropped points on the weekend but you take a look at their form overall and the way in which Man City are coming into an awesome run, it can be difficult for Liverpool.
‘However it’s still early on the season so that you never know. I just think Arsenal and Man City are the 2 favourites now.
‘Arsenal will probably be just a little bit nervous about Man City coming up but I feel it can be one in every of them two. I still probably edge towards Arsenal. I actually 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 slide eight points adrift of early pacesetters Arsenal.
Speaking after the Man City setback, Slot said it was futile discussing Liverpool’s title possibilities until they get back to their normal levels.
‘It was a excellent start of the week and a really bad end to the week,’ Slot said. ‘Today, I don’t think, aside from that call, that it was ever gong to be our game.
‘In general they were the higher team – we want to enhance – but I didn’t need this game to know this. I saw a team trying to return back into the sport, nevertheless it wasn’t enough today and that is evident.
‘Last season when were eight points clear and it didn’t feel prefer it was done already.
‘We shouldn’t talk concerning the the primary position, we must always give attention to our performance that should be higher.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the most recent news on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
MORE: Wayne Rooney calls out Mohamed Salah after Liverpool lose to Man City
MORE: Pep Guardiola calls Liverpool star ‘probably the greatest within the Premier League’
MORE: Jamie Carragher makes big Arsenal claim after Man City smash Liverpool