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Time to question City's depth?

John Stones of England receives medical attention
[Getty Images]

It seems ridiculous to question Manchester City's depth, but the Treble winners could go into Sunday's huge game against top-of-the-table Arsenal looking relatively thin.

Kyle Walker and John Stones are doubts after both limping off early in England's friendlies against Brazil and Belgium respectively.

Manuel Akanji picked up a knock against Belgium and missed Switzerland's second friendly against the Republic of Ireland.

And goalkeeper Ederson has been nursing the hamstring injury he picked up against Liverpool and did not join up with his international team-mates.

As a result, Pep Guardiola could realistically be without four of his first choice five-man defensive unit for the visit of the Gunners.

In midfield, Kevin de Bruyne did not join up with Belgium as he recovers from a groin problem - but did train on Thursday - while Jack Grealish stayed at the club to continue his own rehabilitation and Matheus Nunes dropped out of the Portugal squad with a foot injury.

If results in recent years are a guide, City are still strong favourites even with a depleted XI.

Before this season, they had won their past 12 Premier League meetings with Arsenal going back to 2017, including the dominant 4-1 win in April of last year that was so key to winning the title.

However, this is a different Arsenal and perhaps a different City.

A tight meeting between the two sides in October was decided in the Gunners' favour by Gabriel Martinelli's late deflected goal goal and, let's not forget, they come into this game as league leaders - a point clear of their rivals with 10 matches to play.

If Guardiola has to rely on new additions like Croatia's duo Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic, youngsters such as Rico Lewis, or back-up goalkeeper Stefan Ortega in a game where the onus is very much on his side to win, this could be a much more fallible City team than we are used to seeing in the biggest games.