Pep Guardiola insists Manchester City's four main title rivals all have strong reasons to believe they can win the Premier League.
The champions went back to the top of the Premier League with a 3-1 win over Manchester United on Super Sunday, leaving them 12 points above their city rivals, and two above Liverpool.
But with only eight points separating the top five and five separating the top four positions Guardiola believes Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal are all big contenders.
Guardiola said: "I think Man City right now and Liverpool, Chelsea, and even Arsenal and Tottenham, I think they have numbers to be champion, not just City. We're just two points in front.
"Last season we didn't get points at Anfield, we draw this time. Last season we lost here [against United], but we won. So it's good, four games against contenders, three away just one at home.
"What is important is that we are consistent, that we play most of the time good, and always I see many things that we can improve."
City have impressed in the last month, scoring 15 goals in their last three games, and after breaking points, wins and goals records last season, there were suggestions this City side could be even better.
However, speaking on Sky Sports, Guardiola says it is still extremely early in the season to be making big judgements on his team.
"We are in November. It's November. It's a lot of games, we haven't finished the first round, a lot of things can happen in football.
"Now we can feel good, we made an incredible month, after the international break after we drew at Liverpool, missed a penalty at the end, and we made an incredible performance after this month. We are scoring a lot of goals, make a lot of chances, concede few, and that is rhythm."
Raheem Sterling got into some good positions during the derby win at the Etihad, only for his decision-making to let him down, but Guardiola insisted he has much time to improve on those areas.
Asked about a seemingly strong instructional discussion he had with Sterling at full-time, Guardiola said: "He makes some movement with the legs, we can avoid it, but he's young, and he's going to improve."