Man City hands Liverpool huge opportunity after doing what Arne Slot warned against

Manchester City suffered a 2-1 defeat to Brighton on Saturday to hand Liverpool another major boost in the Premier League title race, with the champions struggling to perform away from home.

City has now lost four straight games in all competitions, something that has never been experienced throughout Pep Guardiola's managerial career. City has suffered consecutive Premier League defeats to Bournemouth and Brighton, and suffered elimination from the Carabao Cup after losing to Tottenham.

The 4-1 shock defeat to Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League also had alarm bells ringing, especially as City has been one of the best clubs in world soccer for several years. Now, Liverpool has the chance to take a five-point lead over City heading into the final international break of 2024.

Very few fans expected Liverpool to challenge this season after Jurgen Klopp was replaced by Arne Slot, but the new head coach has made the best start in club history. Slot has also stressed the importance of securing points away from home, something that City hasn't found easy this season.

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In Klopp's final year, Liverpool finished nine points behind City as they lifted a fourth-straight Premier League title. When assessing last season, Slot claimed that Liverpool's dropped points on the road were the difference, but now City is suffering when playing away from the Etihad.

Earlier this season after a 2-1 away win over Wolves, Slot discussed Liverpool's weaknesses last year and analyzed the importance of road wins when challenging City. "If you are purely looking at it from a data point of view then it was a 10-point difference to City [on away points collected]," Slot said.

"If you look at the home form of both teams then the 10 million question is why is this? I think there are areas we have to improve and that is why it is so important to take control over every game, not only the home games but the away ones too. Just to be very dominant in away games that is why I wasn't very happy with the first 20 minutes at Wolves."

"I think the home and away games of Liverpool are quite similar but in general it is tougher to play away because the home fans cheer very hard if their team gets a chance, they get more confidence from that. You play against the same players (as you do at home) but they get more confidence from the fans which makes it a bit more difficult to win an away game.

"But there were also many home games that were quite tight and maybe then our fans made the difference. The thing is if you are Liverpool - and also they are one or two other [top] clubs - if we go to say Wolves or Palace and they get a corner kick the fans cheer.

"So this is what you face when you are a top club. Everyone is looking forward to it [Liverpool coming to town] the whole week, the Palace fans, everybody is talking about it, 'Liverpool is coming,' the players are all up for it and that is why it is tough."