Manchester City closed within a point of Arsenal at the top of the Barclays Premier League last night after coming from behind to beat Liverpool 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
The bookmakers William Hill have now installed Manuel Pellegrini's side as 10-11 favourites for the title but their captain, Vincent Kompany, who scored the equaliser (above), predicts a very competitive title race.
"It's a weird [title race] because all the teams started a little slowly but now, I don't know how many wins we've had in a row, but we can't grab that top spot," said the Belgian defender.
Having led through Philippe Coutinho, after Raheem Sterling had a goal disallowed for offside, Liverpool, who would have gone top had they won, were pegged back by Kompany before Simon Mignolet's error allowed Alvaro Negredo to score the winner.
Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, said he was very proud of his team and the "charisma in our football" but was upset by the offside decision. "I don't think we had anything that went our way today, so all credit to the players who kept going until the end. I'm disappointed we shipped a goal from a corner and, for the second goal, we have to manage the game better coming up to half-time. That's an area we will look at."
Suarez was denied a late penalty after Joleon Lescott pulled his shirt while challenging for a corner, though Kompany was similarly manhandled by Martin Skrtel as he headed his goal.
And the City skipper said: "We would have liked to have penalties too, in the end I think the referee did the right thing.
"The game was tough, for soft fouls you should never give penalties."
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