Man City's struggles without Rodri expose four transfer decisions that haven't worked yet

Another game without Rodri, another defeat.

Manchester City fans feared that the influential midfielder's absence at Aston Villa would make their evening more difficult, and they were proved right.

John Stones came back in but looked like a player who hadn't played football in weeks, while Rico Lewis had one of his more difficult games alongside him. Villa exploited City's lack of a coherent midfield structure, and earned a fully-deserved three points. It was an evening that underlined Rodri's importance to City, but also a string of decisions in the transfer market that are yet to prove themselves.

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Pep Guardiola insisted the result was not down to Rodri's absence or any other missing player, but he will have been concerned that once again, there is no obvious alternative at the base of midfield to the Spaniard.

Kalvin Phillips was tested at Newcastle and hasn't started the four games Rodri has missed City. Rico Lewis has partnered Mateo Kovacic and John Stones, while Matheus Nunes was hooked at half-time at Wolves and is another who has not graced a starting XI in the meantime.

Kovacic and Nunes were overlooked at Villa in place of Stones and Manu Akanji taking it in turns to push into midfield, with Lewis floating around ineffectually and Julian Alvarez dropping back sometimes. Both summer signings came off the bench midway through the second half - almost £80m of talent from the summer's spending - but failed to stop the waves of Villa attack.

When City inevitably fell behind, neither Kovacic nor Nunes were able to get the ball forward to find a