Judging by the ease with which Manchester City saw off West Ham on Sunday, you wouldn't have known that they'd suffered a hefty transfer blow earlier in the week.
Two Erling Haaland goals took the three points for City and the headlines, as he swiftly put to bed any doubts about his ability to adapt to Pep Guardiola's system and the Premier League. But it was further back on the pitch, specifically at left-back where the most interesting Guardiola innovations were happening.
By and large City's transfer window has gone pretty well, but the whole Marc Cucurella saga has definitely left a bitter taste in the mouth. City identified Cucurella as their main left-back target early in the summer, but had offers of £30m, £35m and £40m rejected by Brighton.
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City refused to bid any higher, and so the Spaniard ended up going to Chelsea in a deal worth around £63m. Following the sale of Oleksandr Zinchenko to Arsenal, Joao Cancelo is now the only senior left-back in Guardiola's squad.
City weren't affected by that at the London Stadium though. To counter the host's penchant for attacking through the middle of the pitch, Guardiola had his two full-backs tuck into midfield, at times playing as a midfield pivot.
When it became clear that City were going to enjoy the lion's share of possession, Rodri stopped dropping between the centre-backs and stepped further up the field, creating a sort of 2-2-3-3 or 2-3-3-2 formation. Cancelo performed his brief well, but this was never going to be the kind of game where City's need for a new, natural sided left-back became apparent. The defeat to Liverpool the week before was one that did.
When City come up against elite wingers — Mohamed Salah for example — then their full-backs will be asked to stay wide, rather than 'invert', to address the threat of opposing widemen.
The problem is that Cancelo didn't really address it against West Ham. Yes, Cancelo will rarely come up against a wide attacker of Salah's quality, but even the most ardent Cancelo fans will admit that he isn't the most defensively sound left-back around.
In games where Cancelo is instructed to stay wide, City's build-up play can suffer too. Against Liverpool, the Blues' left flank was incredibly narrow, with right-footed Cancelo linking up with right-footed Jack Grealish. Grealish found himself with no overlap option when he needed it, while Cancelo received little help from the England star in terms of tracking back.
Those are the kind of games where City would really benefit from having a left-footed left-back option, particularly if Grealish is going to be a regular fixture on the left wing.
The next time that City play Liverpool, Tottenham or another team with dangerous wide players is when we'll learn how Guardiola looks to adapt to the absence of a natural left-back. The position could be City's weakness and a target for exploitation.
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