Man City transfer effort sees them fall down an important league table

Manchester City ended up busier in the transfer window than they perhaps expected to be.

Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez both opted to leave for new challenges when they could have stayed, prompting the Blues to go into the market to replace them. Matheus Nunes, Mateo Kovacic and Jeremy Doku subsequently walked through the door, while centre-back Josko Gvardiol was signed before Aymeric Laporte left.

While it is too early to say whether the new signings can succeed, they have already contributed to a significant change in Pep Guardiola's first-team squad that has seen the average age of the starting XI fall. As well as dropping in real terms, City have gone from having the sixth-oldest side in the division to the twelfth-oldest.

That isn't to say that the younger the better: of the four youngest sides in the Premier League last season, one was Arsenal but the other three were relegated and Burnley are easily the youngest so far in this campaign. Nevertheless, a club always needs to be looking to inject youth into the XI and the fact that City have achieved a similar drop this year to Arsenal, Chelsea and United reduces the risk of the Treble winners being caught out.

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City's average last season in the Premier League was 27.7 (or 27 years and 256 days, if you prefer) and in four games that sealed the Treble - Arsenal at home in April, Real Madrid at home, United in the FA Cup final and Inter in the Champions League final - it was even older at 28. With eight first-team players enjoying birthdays over the summer, there was potential for that to creep up further.

However, the summer signings plus an injury to Kevin De Bruyne has helped to bring the