Last season, Manchester City’s battle for the title shouldn’t have been as difficult as it was, but they fought tooth and nail against an equally resilient Liverpool side, ending up with a record points haul at the top of the Premier League table.

The side’s attractive style of play led them to a domestic treble, and for a while, it seemed that no one could stop the well-oiled machine that the side had become – but that hasn’t been the case this season.

A 3-2 loss to Norwich in early September began a slow decline this season. They’ve scored fewer goals, let more in, and accrued less points than at this point last season – so what’s gone wrong?

Arguably their main problem this season has been their haphazard defence – goalkeeper Ederson has been as strong as ever, but there’s a hole in front of him that few players could ever fit – a hole in the shape of Vincent Kompany.

Kompany was a commanding leader and a huge presence in the citizens’ dressing room last year, and helped organise a defence that, occasionally looked shaky. His departure has left City with only three recognised centre-backs: the aging Nicolas Otamendi, the error-prone John Stones, the technically gifted, but injury-prone Aymeric Laporte.

It’s clear that City need to invest in a leader in this position, because a mixture of poor performances and injury problems have often meant that deep-lying midfielders Fernandinho and Rodri have had to play there.

And that leads us on to our second problem – the defensive midfielder. Almost £70 million was spent on Rodri in the summer, and he was meant to take over from an aging Fernandinho. But while his performances have been solid, it’s been clear from day one that he’s just not the same type of player.

Fernandinho is a battling, ball winning midfielder, whereas Rodri is more technically gifted, operating as a deep-lying playmaker. And while both positions are useful, without the former, there’s been no bite in City’s midfield – mix that with their clear defensive problems, and you’re left with very weak performances in your own half.

And lastly, there’s the team’s wingers. Man City arguably have four world-class wingers: the goalscoring Raheem Sterling, the pacey Leroy Sané, the tricky Riyad Mahrez and the playmaking Bernardo Silva. Last year, these players were regularly rotated, leaving opposition never sure what to expect, but this season, Guardiola has stuck with Sterling and Mahrez, leading to a predictable approach.

The two in-form teams in the EFL Championship met last night as Brentford hosted Nottingham Forest at Griffin Park. Out of the two, Brentford seemed to have the most momentum, not having lost at home since November, while Forest had recently thrown away a lead to in-form Reading just last week.

Both teams, sitting in 5th and 4th place respectively, were both pushing for automatic promotion, and a win would push whoever took the points even closer to the seemingly unstoppable duo of Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion.

But as the game kicked off, Brentford’s home dominance of late seemed to count for nothing as Forest were the ones who came out of the blocks the fastest. Manager Sabri Lamouchi is known as a tinkerer, constantly playing with line-ups and tactics to decide what’s best for the time, and he got the team’s first-half tactics spot on this time, playing a high press to disrupt Brentford’s fast-paced, attacking style of play.

And as soon as they got the ball, they’d play the ball long, up the field to a combination of star player Joe Lolley, towering winger Sammy Ameobi, and veteran striker Lewis Grabban, who’d hold the ball up for an array of technically gifted midfielders and full backs.

And it was one of these players that got the opening goal. The ball was headed out from a corner, and Lolley’s resulting strike from the edge of the box took a massive slice of luck as it was deflected, looping over Brentford ‘keeper David Raya and into the back of the net.

After conceding, Brentford looked strong, and stayed true to the technical style of the play that got them so far this season, with wingers Bryan Mbuemo and Said Benhrama particularly impressive as they tried to push the team forward.

But it seemed every time they went forward, Forest had an answer for it, playing a defensive, combative style of play that Brentford fans would go on to describe as anti-football. For every incisive dribble, there was a thumping tackle, for every clever pass, a powerful clearance.

Forest sprinted over the finish line, heads held high, clutching their 1-0 victory tightly, defining themselves as the team to beat in the Championship this season. Their defensive style of play may not have been pretty, but it was ultimately effective. But I wouldn’t count Brentford out yet either.

We’ve seen some exciting players come and go in the Premier League- from Touré to Suarez, van Persie to Hazard- but who slipped under the radar over the past ten years?

I’ve narrowed the search for the league’s most underrated player down to three; a defender, a midfielder, and a forward, each one of which has done a brilliant job without necessarily receiving the praise they deserve- so let’s take a look at them, and crown the most underrated Premier League player of the decade.

In defence, it’s César Azpilicueta- a mainstay in Chelsea’s backline for the majority of the 2010’s. Starting of as a marauding full-back, he was converted into a centre back as part of Antonio Conté’s famous 3-4-3 system that won the 2016/17 title.

The defender racked up 247 games for the blues last decade, playing all over the club’s backline, and captaining the team to two league titles. If it wasn’t for his versatility, or defensive solidity, it’s clear that Chelsea wouldn’t have dominated the decade like they did.

Up front, we have Olivier Giroud, also currently playing at Chelsea, although it’s not that part of his career that I want to focus on. The towering forward didn’t receive the same plaudits as teammates Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, purely because he did all the jobs they couldn’t (or wouldn’t).

He held the ball up masterfully and pressed defenders from the front, brilliantly allowing Arsenal’s flair players to shine- and his goalscoring record wasn’t all that bad, scoring 105 goals in 253 games for the North London club.

But our midfielder takes the crown. James Milner was an important part of the Man City team that dominated the first half of the decade, and an integral part of the Liverpool team that dominated the second. Playing all over the pitch, Milner’s work rate was often overlooked in favour of Man City’s more technically gifted players.

But in 2015, a free transfer to Liverpool gave him the chance to truly shine, becoming the centrepiece in Jurgen Klopp’s ‘gegenpress’ system for several years, and culminating in a Champions’ League win at the end of the decade.

Milner showed a mixture of professionalism, resilience, work rate, and technical ability that few players could match, while still flying under the radar at two of the best teams of the decade. There is no other player that deserves this crown.