High fives all round as Manchester City thrashed Luton 5-1 to top the Premier League. Photo: Getty Images/Matt McNulty < p>Doom and disappointment after the weekend in the Premier League for anyone hoping for a real three-team title race.
Liverpool and Arsenal lost winnable home games after how Manchester City easily coped with their task, brushing off Luton 5-1.
We've become so accustomed to City quietly slipping into winning machine mode at this stage of the season that a fourth title in a row now seems inevitable.
It's worth remembering that they're only two points clear of three title contenders have 18 points left to play for, and just because something happened before doesn't make it more likely to happen again.
So get your box of straws and your strongest hand ready, because here are five reasons why there's still life in the title race…
Strength of the remaining fixtures
The rough metric used for the calculation is usually the opponents' average position . This is flawed because it assumes that the distance between each position in the table is the same, when a team in fifth place 10 points ahead of sixth is clearly not the same as a team in ninth place ahead of a team in 10th on goal difference. .
Therefore, the best metric is the point average, which takes into account the number of games played by each team. This year we have an unusual situation: two teams lost points. Everton and Nottingham Forest have eight and four more points respectively than the Premier League table shows if we simply assess their strength as a team, so we will have to adjust the figures accordingly.
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