Man City defensive dilemma causing Pep Guardiola a headache

Manchester City faced Brighton on Wednesday with all four centre backs fit for the first time in over a month, but they ended the match with two of them having been substituted with injury concerns. John Stones and Nathan Ake are being assessed by City today after they were withdrawn early from the fixture at the Etihad.

With the vast array of attacking talent among City ’s ranks, manager Pep Guardiola usually has a challenge on his hands on who to pick week-in week-out for the Premier League champions.

For the first time in several games, Guardiola had a fully-fit selection of all four of the senior team’s centre backs following Ruben Dias’ timely return from injury. The Portuguese defender suffered an injury vs Peterborough United in the FA Cup last 16 and hasn’t featured for City since, but came on at half-time against the Seagulls in place of Nathan Ake.

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Dias has cut a colossal figure for Manchester City since arriving at the club in September of 2020, forming a fantastic centre back partnership with John Stones last season that saw the pair seeing the pair claim 14 clean sheets in all competitions when starting together and playing the full 90 minutes last season. To add to this, the duo only conceded 13 goals in this time too.

The Portuguese defender’s performances didn’t go under the radar as he hoovered up the individual awards claiming the Premier League Player of the Season, Manchester City Player of the Year and UEFA Champions League Defender of the Season awards in his debut season at the Manchester club.

City fans were therefore understandably worried when it was confirmed by Guardiola that the defender could miss up to