Man City theory emerges during Spurs game that all Liverpool fans will hope is true

Much of the talk leading into Manchester City's game against Tottenham centered around how Pep Guardiola's contract extension would probably be the shot in the arm his players needed after a run of four successive defeats.

In the opening few minutes at the Etihad Stadium, it looked as though that might be the case as City sparked attack after attack, but the game turned on its head in the 13th minute when Dejan Kulusevski's perfect cross was turned home by James Maddison.

Just seven minutes later, Maddison scored again to double the visitors' lead, producing a delicately dinked finish to beat Ederson after a brilliantly worked one-two with Heung-min Son.

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The manner in which Spurs took control of the match in the blink of an eye would certainly cause concern for Guardiola. City went into the match off the back of losses to Tottenham, Bournemouth, Sporting Lisbon and Brighton, and the absence of the champions' Ballon d'Or winning midfielder, Rodri, is clearly being keenly felt.

However, one Liverpool fan on social media platform X suggested that City's problems run deeper than the absence of its best player, suggesting that the run of form Guardiola's men are currently on is evidence that their era of dominance is over.

"This City side is us in 22/23," X user @LFCLaurie said. "A team past its prime where the majority of their legs have gone. This isn’t a blip like previous years where they’ll go on a 15 game unbeaten run. They’re genuinely washed."

Liverpool fans will not have fond memories of the 2022-23 season; the Reds finished fifth in the Champions League and suffered early exits in each cup competition.

At the end of that campaign, Jurgen Klopp began the process of overhauling his ageing squad — particularly the leggy midfield — with Fabinho, Jordan Henderson, Naby Keita, James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all leaving, to be replaced by younger players in Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister.

City went on to lose 4-0 against Tottenham, handing Liverpool the chance to go eight points clear at the top of the table when Arne Slot's men travel to Southampton on Sunday.