Manuel Pellegrini sees similarities between this year’s Premier League title race and his own successful pursuit of the championship with Manchester City five years ago. On this occasion, however, the West Ham United manager believes there will be a different outcome.

Pellegrini’s current side can give his former club a helping hand on Monday evening when Liverpool visit the London Stadium. The Chilean’s main priority, of course, is to secure the victory that would restore a sense of momentum to West Ham’s campaign after three successive defeats, but a home win would also ensure City could move ahead of Jurgen Klopp’s side when they visit Everton on Wednesday.

In 2014, Liverpool and City were also in contention for the title, with Pellegrini’s team trailing Brendan Rodgers’s side before overhauling them in the final stage of the race. On this occasion, though, Pellegrini believes the demands of competing in four competitions will limit City’s ability to last the pace and, with Tottenham having also exited the two domestic cups in four days, he insists there is a three-way contest at the head of the table.

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“It’s more easy for the team that is involved in just two competitions compared to the team that is involved in four,” said the West Ham manager. “Tottenham? You should never think that a team because they are four or five points behind you are not involved in the title. Of course they are.

“City have to play the final of the Carabao Cup, which will suspend a game. If they make the semi-final of the FA Cup, they must suspend another game. They have midweek with the Champions League. So it is not easy to compete in all the competitions.

“I talked about this five years ago. The major problem was that we were involved in all the competitions. We won the League Cup in that moment. We then went out of the FA Cup in the quarter-final against Wigan at home. If we’d continued in that FA Cup, I don’t think we would have been able to play all the games. We didn’t have time to do it.”

Pellegrini does not expect Winston Reid, the centre-back, to be available this season after a long absence with a knee injury, while there are growing fears that Jack Wilshere may miss the rest of the campaign with an ankle problem.