City will take some stopping under Guardiola this term

1 City are much stronger than last season
The final score read Chelsea 0 Manchester City 1 but on the pitch it was an absolute battering, even allowing for the fact the Blues lost Alvaro Morata to injury early on and may have been jaded from Wednesday's hard-fought triumph at Atletico Madrid.

City were better in just about every facet of the game as they showed improvement from last season all over the pitch in a performance which fully justified their status as odds-on title favourites.

Chelsea's negative mindset - Antonio Conte selected five defenders as well as two holding midfielders and then substituted Morata for Willian - was designed to frustrate City but it always looked as if the goal would come. And what a goal it was from Kevin De Bruyne.

The former Chelsea midfielder was the best player on the pitch by a mile as City outpressed and outpassed their opponents but what stood out just as clearly was their more controlled defensive performance.

City often dominated matches last season only to be caught out by a sucker punch, although they are so much better in the full-back positions this term with converted midfielder Fabian Delph worthy of special praise.

Pep Guardiola moved Philipp Lahm and David Alaba around from their regular positions at Bayern Munich to great success and Delph thrived as a replacement for Benjamin Mendy, while goalkeeper Ederson is everything the manager wanted in a number one.

The Brazilian has great distribution, commands his box and, unlike Claudio Bravo, actually saves shots to complete a side who were always the best in the attacking third.

"Champions of Europe, you'll never sing that," taunted the Chelsea fans at regular intervals. I wouldn't be as sure as the Stamford Bridge faithful on that one.

2 Writing on the wall for Shakespeare
It has been a tough start to the season for Leicester who have already faced Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool but City's only success has come at home to Brighton, which must be of some concern to manager Craig Shakespeare.

They were lucky to hold on for a point at Bournemouth having been fortunate to escape Huddersfield with a 1-1 draw on their previous away trip so the next couple of matches against West Brom and Swansea have become hugely important for a manager who may soon be faced with questions regarding his future.

3 Fulham can fly after the international break
They were hanging on for the full-time whistle but Fulham controlled large parts of their derby success at QPR to record successive wins for the first time this season.

Slavisa Jokanovic has been missing important players such as influential midfielder Tom Cairney and it was a patched-up attacking unit who did the job on Friday, but when their strongest 11 is available expect the Cottagers to be bang in the promotion mix.

4 Oldham are improving
John Sheridan's exit from Oldham has coincided with two excellent results, as they beat Peterborough with ten men on Tuesday before a 2-1 triumph at Portsmouth on Saturday.

Oldham's victory at Fratton Park was particularly impressive as they had the majority of possession, more than twice as many attempts and won the shots-on-target count 6-2.

5 Celtic vulnerable after Europe
Celtic have dropped points twice this season, in home draws with St Johnstone (1-1) and Hibs on Saturday (2-2). Both results came after their Champions League away trips.

Brendan Rodgers is clearly targeting a better European run and punters need to be wary as their domestic failures have come at odds of 2-11 and 1-4.

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