When Manchester City line up to face Arsenal at the Emirates, the champions will be without one of their key players – on the bench at least.

Domenec Torrent, Pep Guardiola’s right-hand man for 11 years as the Catalan rose from Barcelona B to become the most coveted manager in world football, is off to be a No 1 with New York Red Bulls.

Intriguingly, both Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho and Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp also lost their long-standing sidekicks this summer.

Rui Faria, for 17 years Mourinho’s confidant and adviser at first Porto, then Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and United, left Old Trafford back in May.

One month earlier, the highly-rated Bosnian coach Zeljko Buvac, with whom Klopp first teamed up at Mainz back in 2001 and who the German once described as the best signing of his career, departed Anfield amid rumours of a bust-up.