I don't think the premier league has become more competitive as Manchester city dominance has reduced but I think Manchester city are in a bad form because some of their key players aren't available for them to be used and Pep Guadiola doesn't have other better options to use and this is making him to lose games that were previously easy for him to win. We have more quality managers in the premier league now but let us wait for when Manchester city are back in form as their injured players return before we can see how the league is going to be before we can make conclusions. When Manchester city are in form, I don't think any manager can defeat them.
Yeah, that's it, you nailed the point. Manchester City struggled in games due to missing key players, but it's only that. Their high-line strategy also led to bad results. If they could stick to the back 4 and leave their highline strategy, i think they might be fine. The problem is that they still so stubborn to use the highline strategy which was not fit to their gameplay. I'm feeling fine if they are going back to their old strategy.
It's not only me who have been critizing their highline strategy, but i have heard many of city fans were also concerning the same thing as me. The good thing is we will have De Bruyne back.. Hee can help us stop struggling to beat any team and a small change in our strategy will help us a lot.
Also, the comeback of De Bruyne has been confirmed by EPL's injury table above.