IT’S TOO SOON TO SAY IT...

TALK of Manchester City’s demise is more than a little bit premature.

Maybe Pep Guardiola’s team aren’t quite as dominant as in previous years, but they WILL be at the heart of the title-race shake-up in May.

Four league games without a win does amount to a crisis at the Etihad, even though that sequence of results has included draws against Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham. That’s how excellent City have been over the past seven seasons.

Yes, they were well beaten at Aston Villa on Wednesday night despite the 1-0 scoreline. But Unai Emery’s Villa are a growing force, and capable of beating anyone on their day.

It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction we get from the reigning champions at Luton this afternoon.

The humble surroundings of Kenilworth Road are taking teams out of their comfort zone. And Rob Edwards’ Hatters are making life even more uncomfortable for the top sides by being well-organised and dangerous on the break.

Arsenal needed an injurytime winner to get past Luton on Tuesday night, and last month Liverpool found the going just as tough until their very late equaliser.

Luton will be really looking forward to mixing it with the European champions today. These were the games they could only dream about when they were fighting to get out of the Conference a decade ago.

It is never a good time to face Manchester City. But their run of mediocre results only makes Luton’s task more daunting. Guardiola (above) and his team have always responded to pressure.

Jurgen Klopp warned it would be foolish to write City off – and he is absolutely right to keep his guard up.