A quick scan of the first-team squad page on Manchester City club's website will soon tell you that Pep Guardiola is not light on options.
The Catalan is blessed with world-class talent in every department of his squad, even if the debate about the lack of an out-and-out striker continues to rumble on.
Blessed with versatility right across the pitch, with Joao Cancelo, Nathan Ake, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling all capable of playing in multple roles, Guardiola does not have the worry that most managers have when a handful of injuries begin to take their toll.
It is in the wide areas where City can probably consider themselves blessed most.
Riyad Mahrez, Cole Palmer, Bernardo, Grealish, Foden, Sterling and Jesus can all operate on either the right or left flank, and the task of picking just two of them must be a challenge in itself for Guardiola.
Although Mahrez, surprisingly, has been forced to start on the bench for City's recent clashes with Tottenham Hotspur and Everton, he has been Guardiola's most popular choice to start on the right-flank in recent weeks, starting six of the last nine Premier League games that he has been available for.
Sterling, meanwhile, has made the left-wing his own, starting five of the last seven league games in that position.
Considering they were both struggling to nail down a place in Guardiola's preferred Premier League starting line-up at the start of the season, — which prompted Sterling to admit he would consider leaving the club if his opportunities did not increase — they each deserve credit for the way they have bounced back.
They've again become key figures in what City are trying to achieve this season.
The signing of Grealish for £100million last summer was an immediate threat to Sterling's future. With the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, De Bruyne, Bernardo all unlikely to be dismissed in the centre of midfield, Grealish was set to be in direct competition with Sterling for a starting berth on the left.
Grealish, most probably because of the weight of the transfer fee, was winning the battle from the off, with Sterling left in his shadow. But with the former having so far failed to live up to expectation, Sterling has pounced on his struggles and scored 10 more goals and claimed two assists more than Grealish; so it's easy to understand why he has made the left-flank his own recently.
Mahrez, meanwhile, was forced into watching Jesus take up residency on the right-wing, much to everyone's surprise, at the start of the campaign. The Algerian scored 14 goals and claimed nine assists last season, meaning not even the arrival of Grealish should have disrupted his hopes of remaining a regular starter.
But after a few frustrating weeks, he burst back onto the scene in December and has not looked back, like Sterling, becoming an invaluable member of the team, scoring 18 goals and registering seven assists in all competitions this season.
Combining Mahrez's and Sterling's direct goal contributions so far this season, you get an overall figure of 43, highlighting just how important they both are to the way that City play.
They are a joy to watch and their importance to Guardiola's way of playing cannot be overlooked.
And it's not just this season where their numbers have made for impressive viewing. The duo have been consistently brilliant in each of the last three seasons, so much so that they have registered 162 direct goal contributions (goals and assists) between them since the start of the 2019/20 campaign.
That is a remarkable return.
With the duo continuing to go from strength-to-strength and consistently delivering the goods, City need to make it a priority to tie them both down to new contracts this summer — perhaps even more so than sourcing a striker. Their respective deals are up in 2023 and each of them will have a train of suitors if they enter the final 12 months of their current contracts without having signed an extension.
They have both proven that the presence of a £100million signing won't knock them off their perch, meaning it would take something extra special to prevent them from continuing as the torchbearers for City's star-studded forward-line.
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