Some Man City players may only have one more chance to get into Pep Guardiola's side

For years fantasy football players have watched on in anguish after once again falling victim to Pep Guardiola roulette. An attacking player bang in form and getting all the points? You best believe he's being named on the bench the week you've named him triple captain.

But things are changing. For perhaps the first time in Guardiola's glorious tenure in charge of Manchester City, his teams have become predictable. If you discount the FA Cup win over Championship side Burnley in which a few more changes were made, the manager has used just 14 players in the last five matches and only a couple of positions have been altered.

Julian Alvarez came in for the injured Erling Haaland and the sidelined Phil Foden has been replaced by either Riyad Mahrez or Bernardo Silva. Otherwise, the team has remained consistent. Guardiola has always preferred small squads but at the moment he's only relying on about 14 players.

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It's no surprise changes have been kept to a minimum as his side have well and truly hit their stride and found the sort of relentless form that has seen them clinch the tightest of title races. The defence in particular has become unshakeable.

What's most remarkable is that a manager who once spent £130million on full-backs in one summer is now consistently deploying a back-line comprised of four centre-backs.

With Guardiola, there is always room for innovation. The Blues boss has been toying with the inverted full-back all summer and now John Stones is the latest to be given the difficult task. He's passing with flying colours even when asked to go into midfield from centre-back, as he did in Tuesday's evisceration of Bayern