Rafa Benitez has warned Manchester City that they can't make 'too many mistakes' if they expect to challenge for the Premier League title this season.

City are eight points behind Liverpool after eight games having lost to Wolves and Norwich.

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, meanwhile, have won all eight of their games and are top of the pile on 24 points.

Rafa Benitez has warned Pep Guardiola's Premier League champions about making mistakes

Benitez does, however, believe that Liverpool still have a very long way to go yet

It has led former Liverpool manager Benitez to conclude that Pep Guardiola's side can't afford many more mistakes if they are to win a third consecutive season - even if it is too early to crown the champions in October.

'It you look at the table Liverpool has a great advantage at the moment, it is too early to tell much from that, but Manchester City can’t make too many mistakes or the pressure might become too much,' he wrote on his official website.

'Especially as later they will start thinking about the Champions League and lose their focus on the Premier League which obviously would be good for Liverpool.'

Benitez did concede that it is too early to crown Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool as champions just yet

Away from the race for the title, Benitez also talked of his pride at seeing Matty Longstaff score on his league debut in the win over Manchester United last weekend.

He added: 'I was really pleased to see Matty Longstaff scoring the winning goal for Newcastle; he was great when he was training with us and it was a good decision from Steve Bruce to make him play.

'I was also happy to see a few Geordies playing together at the same time; Carroll, Sean and Matty; surely it shouldn’t be difficult to see the benefits of investing in the Academy? £4million every year for 10 years means £40m (one player); one "Longstaff" every year for ten years seems good business to me.'