Three-time defending champion Manchester City visit last year’s runners-up Arsenal on Sunday in a match that again could shape the Premier League title race.

So far, it’s unclear whether a two-team chase will again emerge or if the field will be more crowded.

For that reason and others, City manager Pep Guardiola insisted that the Sunday clash in London — while high profile — won’t be the most important match his side plays in the next two months.

Instead, it’s the next two or three UEFA Champions League group matches, during which City could seal early qualification for the knockout phase after starting the tournament with back-to-back wins.

Most recently, City (6-1-0, 18 points) rebounded from taking their first league loss last weekend to win 3-1 at RB Leipzig on Wednesday behind goals from Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez and Jeremy Doku. If they continue that form, they can book their place in the last 16 sooner and then focus solely on the league for most of the winter.

“The Champions League is the most important thing by far, until February when it starts again,” Guardiola said. “What I want is to arrive here in February when we start the Champions League to be in the competitions and that it’s close. To be close to the top of the league and keep the distance short and make the last 10 games in our competition, ‘OK, let’s do it again.'”

That approach worked last season when City eventually overtook Arsenal late and clinched the title before the final weekend.

Arsenal (5-0-2, 17 points) may find this year’s task more difficult, given rising expectations and a return to the Champions League — where they lost 2-1 at Lens on Tuesday — following a six-year absence.

The Gunners also snapped a eight-match losing streak against City when they won the Community Shield on penalties following a 1-1 draw in early August, making it easier not to focus on those recent struggles.

“Well, we aren’t looking back for sure because there were different players participating in those games, but we know one thing for certain, that we’re going to have to be at our best,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. “We have to be at our best in every department for 100 minutes. Then we have a chance.”

Bukayo Saka, Arsenal’s leading scorer, is questionable after he was forced off early due to a muscular injury in the loss at Lens.

Meanwhile, influential City midfielder Rodri will be sidelined on Sunday while serving the last match of his three-match suspension for a violent- conduct, red-card offense.

–Field Level Media

Liverpool FC look to continue their early Premier League title challenge on Sunday when they visit a Brighton & Hove Albion side that has been a major impediment to those aims in the recent past.

Liverpool (5-1-1, 16 points) enters the weekend fourth in the table — but only two points back of league leaders Manchester City — following a controversial 2-1 loss at Tottenham Hotspur that could have finished differently had Luis Diaz’s apparent goal been allowed to stand.

Instead, it was incorrectly ruled offside on the field, and an error in the video review process confirmed that decision and eventually precipitated an official apology from PGMOL, the governing body of the league’s referees.

The Reds were able to move on in the form of a 2-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday with goals from Ryan Gravenberch and Diogo Jota.

The trip to the South Coast could provide another boost if they can beat the Seagulls, who have won the past two meetings in all competitions and prevented a Liverpool victory in six of the teams’ past seven matchups.

“If you play like you played last year, you will get a massive knock again,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said of his side’s recent struggles against Brighton. “That’s how it is. So we should play better, and I think we can play better. That’s the first step into the right direction.”

Brighton (5-2-0, 15 points) are also in the mix in a crowded top third of the table, entering the weekend in sixth behind Aston Villa on goal difference after Villa routed the Seagulls 6-1 last weekend.

Any doubts over whether that result would dampen the spirit of manager Roberto de Zerbi’s side were silenced after his team fought from two goals down to a 2-2 Europa League draw at Marseille on Thursday to earn the first European point in club history.

Pascal Gross began the fightback in the 54th minute before Joao Pedro leveled from the penalty spot in the 88th.

“If we speak about football, we played bad, we didn’t play well, as Brighton, no?” De Zerbi said. “If we speak about character, about behavior, or about the passion of the players, there was only one team on the pitch, and I’m really proud.”

After scoring an own goal in the match against Villa, Brighton fullback Pervis Estupinan departed at halftime on the weekend and is expected to miss about a month with a muscular injury.

Liverpool’s Jota and Curtis Jones will be serving suspensions for red cards they earned in the loss at Spurs.

–Field Level Media