Man City have started to replace Ilkay Gundogan on and off the pitch

Ilkay Gundogan is the latest 'irreplaceable' that Manchester City have to find a way of, well, replacing.

Over seven years of success at the Etihad, the German showed not only a knack for knitting together the defence and attack in his own special way but his final year saw him captain the side to a Treble. Losing him on a free transfer to Barcelona was not something Pep Guardiola wanted to happen and more a product of the club not offering him as good a deal as he could get elsewhere until it was too late.

It will take some time to get used to Gundogan not being instrumental to this City side, and his absence may not be most noticeable until the biggest games at the end of the campaign. Against Leeds, Everton and United last season, he was the unstoppable matchwinner.

City have no choice though, and have certainly taken steps to replace him. Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes have both arrived for a fee of around £80m between them, Phil Foden is playing more centrally while a bonus from the summer window was Bernardo Silva agreeing to stay and sign a new deal.

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There are early signs of progress in the aim, too. Kovacic looks as comfortable slipping between the No.6 and No.8 roles and has started playing some incisive balls through the middle; there was the chip at Burnley that Foden nearly turned into a spectacular goal, then the pass for Erling Haaland for the first goal against Fulham was simple yet inch-perfect - as it needed to be.

Getting on the end of that Haaland cross/shot was Julian Alvarez, who has been played with varying success in the midfield roles behind the No.9. One thing that the Argentine definitely excels at is getting into