Jamie Redknapp believes Manchester City‘s title hopes are fading fast, naming one player Enzo Maresca’s side are missing after their third consecutive Premier League defeats.
City were beaten 3-1 by Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday, a result that allowed Arsenal to move six points clear at the top of the table following their 1-0 win over Hull City.
Should Brighton beat Brentford on Sunday, they will leapfrog City into second place. The situation has left Redknapp struggling to identify any genuine threat to the champions.
Semenyo absence leaves City short in wide areas
Speaking on Sky Sports, Redknapp pointed to the continued absence of Antoine Semenyo as a key factor in City’s struggles, even if he stopped short of using it as a full explanation for the defeat.
“They [Man City] obviously miss Semenyo, he’s a big player for them in the wide areas but they’ve still got people in wide positions who can cause problems,” Redknapp said.
Semenyo, who joined City from Bournemouth in a £64 million deal in January, has been a regular source of goals and width for Maresca’s side this season, and his continued unavailability has coincided with a troubling run of results.
Saturday’s loss followed defeats to Aston Villa and Brighton, leaving City with three straight Premier League losses for the first time in years.
Redknapp made clear the scale of his concern over where City and anyone else go from here.
“That one today is a sore one, it gives you the feeling right now in terms of who can challenge Arsenal? I just don’t see one,” he said.
Redknapp sees no challenger to runaway Arsenal
The former England midfielder was unequivocal in his assessment of the gap that has opened up at the top of the division. Mikel Arteta’s side are unbeaten in the league in the past few matches and showing few signs of weakness in any area of the pitch.
“I know it’s really early but I just think they’re so much better than everyone else in every single area,” Redknapp said.
He added that City’s inability to see out matches was becoming a worrying pattern, one that plays directly into Arsenal’s hands as the title race develops.
“It’s the worst-case scenario for every team, when you see a team like that, today they grind out a result, I just don’t see anybody else,” he said.
Pressed further on who, if anyone, could realistically keep pace with Arsenal, Redknapp turned to Brighton. He, however, admitted he would have seemed far-fetched only a few months ago.
“If you look at the league table, I think right now, probably the one you’d point to, and I never thought I’d say this at the start of the year, but it’s Brighton,” he said, according to Sky Sports.
Maresca under pressure as City search for answers
The defeat at the City Ground piles further pressure on Enzo Maresca, who took charge at the Etihad this season and now finds his side needing a response heading into the November international break.
City had chances to keep the gap at the top manageable but were undone by a Forest side who struck twice either side of Rayan Cherki’s fine second-half finish, with Liam Delap’s late goal sealing the points for the hosts.
For City, the challenge now is to arrest a slide that has seen them drop from genuine title contenders to a side fighting to stay in touch with the pack.
