It’s back to square one for Liverpool, with the media writing off their Premier League title chances after the 3-0 defeat at Man City.The champions looked nothing like that on Sunday, with City easily the better team throughout.Here’s how the media reacted to Liverpool’s latest defeat in such a disappointing season. The general consensus is that Liverpool’s title defence is done…The Athletic’s James Pearce described the defeat as “chastening”:“A chastening afternoon for Liverpool. All the positivity generated by those wins over Villa and Real Madrid washed away.“Big decisions went against them but they were their own worst enemies. Heaviest PL defeat of the Slot era.“Defensively so poor.”Meanwhile, David Lynch was even more critical of the performance produced:“Saw a lot of talk about Liverpool getting themselves into the title race by winning today but the fact is this team just isn’t close to good enough.“Issues with build-up, physical duels, and pressing all on show today, and now an eight-point gap to the summit.“Title defence over.”Speaking on Sky Sports, Roy Keane was another who wrote off Liverpool’s title chances:“At this moment you can’t be considering Liverpool for the title.“That’s five losses now, the type of goals they’re giving away. People keep on talking about their attacking players but defensively they are all over the place. The amount of goals they’re giving up.”Jason Burt of the Telegraph said Liverpool “could not cope” with City on the day:“Liverpool are eight points from the summit and at the end of a week when it looked like their form was returning, including an impressive Champions League victory over Real Madrid, they simply could not cope.“They have now lost five of their last six league games. Much more of this and their challenge will be over.” There are a number of reasons why Liverpool lost…The Guardian‘s David Hytner said the Reds couldn’t blame more VAR nonsense:“The decisions were not the reason why they lost. City were slicker and more incisive; they carried the greater physical threat, too.“It was hard not to fear that Liverpool’s title defence ended here and not only because they trail Arsenal by eight points. It was the manner in which they fell to a fourth away league defeat in succession for the first time since 2012.“There had been no little fanfare after their midweek Champions League win over Real Madrid. They were back. Not on this evidence.” Finally, the Mirror‘s Dan Marsh claimed Liverpool were “leggy” after recent excursions:“Victory over Real Madrid may have cooled talk of a crisis, but the reigning Premier League champions were all at sea here.“They wilted under the lights of the Etihad in difficult conditions and were fortunate to only be two goals down at the break.“Arne Slot‘s team looked leggy and it never felt like there was any way back for them when Gonzalez’s strike hit the net in first half stoppage time, even if they did improve slightly after the break.”