Squad depth helps make Man City odds-on favourites to retain Premier League title

Manchester City cruised to the Premier League title last season, securing it with three games to spare.

It was the noisy neighbours’ seventh top division title and their third Premier League win in the last four seasons. They kept most clean sheets (19), enjoyed the longest winning run (15 matches), the longest unbeaten run (19 matches), and the biggest home win (a 9-0 demolition of Southampton).

Can anyone stop them this season? The bookies don’t think so: All of the top online betting sites reviewed by My Betting Sites have the Citizens as odds-on favourites to make it four league titles in a row, with some pricing them as short as 4/6. That is, frankly, an astonishingly short price given the early stage that we are at and with many big-name players still surely to arrive at City’s rivals before the transfer window shuts. It would, however, still take a brave man to lay City, and a large reason for that is down to the depth of the squad Pep Guardiola has at his disposal.

Guardiola insists that Man City cannot afford to buy a striker to replace Sergio Agüero this summer. It’s worth noting here (for all those who may have somehow missed this) that the club is majority-owned by Sheikh Mansour, deputy prime minister of the UAE, a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi, and one of the richest owners in world football with an estimated wealth of around £17 billion.

That financial clout has enabled Pep Guardiola to rack up a whopping net spend on players of over £500 million since he took over as manager at the start of the 16/17 season. Only Manchester United achieved a higher net spend during the same period in the Premier League, so Pep’s claims rightly raised eyebrows. What Manchester City have done though, in contrast to their city rivals, is put together an almost unstoppable first-choice XI, supported by a second XI that would probably finish in the top six in its own right.

Zack Steffen is a good example. The shot-stopper proved himself to be a more than able deputy to Ederson in the 12 matches across all competitions that the USA international started last season. If Ederson is unavailable for selection for long periods during the upcoming season, it will be a big loss to City, but not nearly as damaging as losing the first choice keeper would be for their closest challengers. Liverpool, for example, looked shaky at best during Allison’s lay-off last season, and despite the huge fee Chelsea paid for him, Kepa Arrizabalaga has been far from convincing when covering for Édouard Mendy.

Centre-back is another position where City can paper over serious cracks should it be necessary. Rúben Dias, John Stones and Aymeric Laporte (who would all walk into other Premier League starting lineups) compete for two centre-back spots, and Nathan Ake is a vastly experienced defender at Premier League and international level who can step in if required. Liverpool were hit with injuries to key centre-backs van Dijk, Gomez and Matip last season so although they fielded no fewer than 20 centre-back pairings during 2020/21, it’s not exactly a fair comparison. Manchester United, on the other hand, are noticeably worse at the back if just one of their defenders, Harry Maguire, is not fit or available. Signing Raphaël Varane would go a long way to helping United solve that problem but they, and the other challengers for the title, remain a long way behind City in terms of depth.