Injuries have a big impact at Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola always made changes and rotated his team, but there was still a core of players who played the majority of the games. This included Rodri and Kevin de Bruyne.

All clubs go through an injury crisis at some point – we saw it at Newcastle last season and at Brentford where they were missing 10 players – but before you know it, you don’t have time to be able to be the best version of yourself.

This is by no means a global crisis for City. It’s like that because they lost three games in a row.

If Liverpool hadn’t had a near-perfect start, City would still be top of the table.

It’s just not what we’re used to seeing from Guardiola’s side. He must choose who is available rather than who will make the best team for each match. This affects how their season goes.

Some players are back for a week then out for two more weeks. So it’s difficult to say at this stage of the season which players are in very good form because many of them haven’t had the stability to play.

City can turn things around, but it will be difficult to do because even if they are down, the other teams will be up and recognize that it is the right time to play them.

And, while they’re still a good team, they’re not the best version we’ve seen from them in recent years.

Nedum Onuoha was speaking to BBC Sport’s Katie Stafford