Chris Sutton has criticised Gary Neville’s accusation of Manchester City being complacent, deeming it “deeply unfair”.

Sutton argues that Manchester City have faced four challenging opponents in a row and maintains they are still the best team in the division.  Despite being winless in four outings, including draws with Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham, followed by a 1-0 loss at Aston Villa, Sutton sees City’s recent performance dip but does not perceive it as a full-blown crisis.

“Let’s not write Manchester City off. Let’s not have sensationalist journalism from you. It’s ridiculous,” he said on the It’s All Kicking Off podcast.

“If he [Neville] is hinting about complacency in Manchester City, I don’t know how he can judge that. I don’t think I don’t think that they are complacent. I think that their standards have slipped a little bit.”

Ian Ladyman, the co-host of the podcast, criticised City’s “abject” attacking display against Villa, but Sutton believes they are not in a crisis situation.

“If we’re going to use the word crisis, and I get this, you can use the word crisis. Is this a crisis for Manchester City? Well, it is, but they live by different standards and we’re judging them by different standards to everybody else.”

Manchester City are next in action on Sunday afternoon away at Luton Town, which won’t be any easier as Arsenal found out during their late 4-3 victory.