On Saturday evening, the Premier League saw one of the most improbable results of the season, as injury-stricken Norwich pulled off a 3-2 home win over reigning champions Manchester City.
Norwich deserves massive credit for their victory and their performance with a patched-up defence should not be undermined.
However, City gifted the Canaries the victory courtesy of a woeful defensive display by centre-back pair John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi.
It was a case of a comedy errors from the pair. Nobody took control for Norwich’s opener, while Stones attempted to play offside for the second and Otamendi got horribly caught out for the home sides third goal.
The game illustrated just how important French centre-back Aymeric Laporte is to Pep Guardiola’s side. The former Athletic Bilbao defender is the leader and best centre-back on the club’s books.
Unfortunately for City, he will be out of action until early February due to a knee injury. His absence could prove fatal to the Citizen’s title bid.
It seems crazy to be talking like that so early in the season. However, Guardiola’s team are already five points behind league leaders Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp’s side has won all five of their Premier League outings so far and it is difficult to see who can stop the Merseysider’s this season.
Such is their momentum that they could just end that long wait for an English top-flight title. If they keep all their star players fit of course, as they have some highly influential players who they would miss just as badly as City are missing Laporte.
At this moment in time, not signing another centre-back in the summer is looking like a big error by boss Pep Guardiola. Losing club captain Vincent Kompany and heading into the season with just three centre-backs now looks like an incredibly bad mistake in fact by the Catalan boss.