The admission came with a caveat: the former Liverpool midfielder said it was a prediction he never expected to make when the season started.

“If you look at the league table, I think right now, probably the one you’d point to, and I never thought I’d say this at the start of the year, but it’s Brighton,” Redknapp told Sky Sports after the weekend’s games.

Arsenal, the reigning Premier League champions, moved onto 27 points on Saturday after Martin Ødegaard broke Hull City’s resistance in the 72nd minute of a 1-0 home win that put them six points clear at the top. Hours earlier, Enzo Maresca’s Manchester City had lost 3-1 at Nottingham Forest, a third straight league defeat.

Oliver Glasner’s Forest did the damage early. Jair Cunha opened the scoring after taking the ball off Joško Gvardiol and beating Gianluigi Donnarumma, and Liam Delap, a former City academy striker, doubled the lead soon after. Rayan Cherki pulled one back with a volley into the top corner before Delap sealed it with a second. Maresca said afterwards that his players had lost too many duels and failed to match the hosts’ intensity.

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Brighton third, chance to climb into second

Fabian Hürzeler’s Brighton sit third and can overtake City into second place with a home win over Brentford on Sunday, 8 November.

Redknapp framed his pick as much a verdict on the thinness of the alternatives as a vote of confidence in Brighton, highlighting William Saliba’s return to the Arsenal backline and contrasting it with how open City had looked at the City Ground. Brighton, he added, were still coping without the injured Antoine Semenyo, who normally supplies the width that pulls defences apart.

City became only the second side in English top-flight history, according to Squawka, to win their opening seven league games of a season and then lose their next three. The first, Sheffield Wednesday, managed the feat in 1904-05.

Redknapp sees no one else closing in

Redknapp was blunt on the state of the race, dismissing the chances of Liverpool, Chelsea and City catching the champions. He said Arsenal looked better than the rest of the league in every area and could not see a credible challenger emerging.

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Brighton kick off at home against Brentford at 2pm local time on Sunday, 8 November.

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