Man City are now to do just one recognised centre back after John Stones joins Aymeric Laporte on the injury list.
At the end of last season, Vincent Kompany called time on his Man City career. He was an integral part of the Champions defence and this was shown with his testimonial reception last week.
Kompany leaving left City with just three centre backs. They did try to sign Harry Maguire this summer but Man United beat them to it. As a result, Fernandinho was then identified as a makeshift centre back if needed. This is a role he has played before, but he much prefers the holding midfielder position.
Last month, Citys best centre back Laporte got injured against Brighton, a game in which they won 4-0. The injury was a bad one that has since seen him have surgery and be sidelined for up until around January.
Since then they have dropped points to Norwich. The Canaries beat them 3-2 in a poor performance that showed they missed Laporte. Walker and Zinchenko were both disappointing but the worst performance came from Otamendi. The Argentine defender was directly at fault for the third and was caught out for pace with the second goal. This has allowed Liverpool to open up a five point gap at the top of the Premier League. This gap has now seen Liverpool (6/4) come a lot closer to Man City (4/6) in the Premier League betting odds on Betfred.
Things have gotten worse for Man City. John Stones has picked up a muscle injury in training and Pep confirmed he will be out for 5-6 weeks. This is going to be a tough period for Peps side who are now going to have to bring in an academy player or shift their shape around.
City is going to have a makeshift defence now for five Premier Leauge games, two Champions Leauge games and one League Cup game. This could make the odds very interesting for their upcoming games. On Saturday, Norwich were priced at 33/1 with some bookmakers!
