Losing Kevin De Bruyne

Without a doubt, Kevin de Bruyne was Manchester City’s most influential player in their 2017/18 Premier League triumph. He was instrumental in the Cityzen’s record breaking one-hundred-point season, and racked up a frightening tally of eight goals and 16 assists in 37 appearances. His vision is exceptional, and his defence splitting passes were on show for all to enjoy. He sadly missed out on the PFA player of the year award to Mo Salah, who had a supernatural debut season in the Premier League, breaking the goalscoring record by 1 and setting a new record of 32 goals in a 38 game season. However, de Bruyne did pick up the playmaker award, which is given to the player with the most assists. He narrowly beat teammate Leroy Sane by 1, with a late goal from Jesus in their last game the decider between the two. In this new season, City are still favourites to win the title, and uk voucher codes enables you to get free spins and place your bet on them to defend what is currently theirs. They are currently 4/7 to win the Premier League.

However, there has been a slight setback for the Manchester Club. Recently, it was announced that de Bruyne is set to be out of action for 3 months due to ligament damage. It was originally believed that the Belgian would miss the majority of the 2018/19 campaign, and it shows how much fans value him that a 3-month absence was celebrated. It will obviously cause problems for Pep, but fans shouldn’t be too fixated on this as City has a truly fantastic squad. Before the summer, their midfield already boasted Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, Gundogan and David Silva (among others) and they have gone and reinforced it in the summer by signing Riyad Mahrez for £60m. If fans still needed persuading, then the 2-0 win against Arsenal – in which de Bruyne barely played – shows that they can function perfectly without him. They dominated the midfield for the majority of that game, and didn’t seem to urgently need de Bruyne on the pitch. Of course, they faced an in progress Arsenal team, but one that still has talent and can’t be underestimated. An away match against Huddersfield awaits the Cityzen’s, in which they drew 0-0 the last time they met, but if they can survive Arsenal without their key man, they will most probably brush past the Terriers. I highly doubt anything less than a comfortable 3-0 home win for Pep Guardiola.

It will, of course, take longer for the Premier League to see the extent of the damage caused by de Bruyne’s absence. Big fixtures against Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea could be decided by the midfield battles, and if their key man is missing then it could lead to a few disappointing results for the blue side of Manchester. This could potentially derail their title defence. However, this is a worst case scenario, and one in which City are equipped to face the issue head on.