No player has assisted more goals in the Premier League over the last two seasons than Kevin De Bruyne. Only Harry Kane and Mo Salah have had a hand in more goals in that time than the two-time PFA Player of the Year.
When the appearances of those players are accounted for, De Bruyne averages a goal or assist every 1.15 games, compared to Kane's 1.12 and Salah's 1.2.
He's a goal-creating machine, the joint-record assister in a season, he's the best player in the league, and Manchester City are right to build their team around him.
But what happens when he doesn't play? Who shoulders the creative burden he leaves behind?
It's not like City don't have options in attacking midfield. They have coped without De Bruyne before and will cope without him again.
It was telling that the biggest goalscorer-assister combination last season was jointly Raheem Sterling for Ilkay Gundogan, and De Bruyne for Jesus, with three goals per duo. City create goals from all over the pitch, with endless combinations of players making and scoring them.
Unlike Kane, or Salah, or even the prolific Bruno Fernandes, De Bruyne is a talisman who City don't need to rely on to achieve their collective goals.
But of course, when De Bruyne doesn't play, City change their approach and have to come up with a plan to create goals a different way.
This season, that Plan B appears to be coming from an unlikely source.
So far this season, Gabriel Jesus has a goal and three assists, while Ferran Torres has two goals and an assist in three games. With Jesus seemingly moving from a striker to a winger, and Torres vice versa, maybe City have stumbled onto a youthful partnership that could provide a goal a game.
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With De Bruyne still recovering from injury, those goals are valuable and will help to make up for no new striker joining the ranks.
Torres has taken his form into the international break, continuing to expose how much of a bargain his £20m signing was last year from Valencia. Jesus, who continues to silence the doubters following his £28m signing in 2017, has arguably already justified that fee given his record of 83 goals and 37 assists in 198 games.
If he's now adding more regular assists to his game - and Torres is showing his value as a striker - City could have found a value partnership almost by accident.
At Jesus's rate of three assists from three appearances, maybe he could also rival De Bruyne's Premier League record of assists as well.
