When you look at a team like Manchester City and attempt to highlight the most important player, so many different names can come to mind. Kevin De Bruyne, able to pick out a pass from the tightest of angles and score rockets from outside the box. Sergio Aguero, one of the Premier League’s greatest goal scorers ever. Perhaps Ederson, the goalkeeper who perfectly embodies a Pep Guardiola side? No, it’s not any of them in particular, it’s all of them.

The side that Pep Guardiola has established has quickly become one that can plug in a new set of players each match and still compete at the highest level. It’s a side heavily invested in no doubt, but also a side that is filled with endless quality and potential throughout. As City currently sit in first, just one point ahead of Liverpool, each and every one of the final eight games of the season are crucial.

We are at a point in the season where minutes are adding up in players legs and injuries are hard to prevent. Add that to the fact that many of the top six sides in the Premier League are stockpiled with players who played lengthy minutes in this past summer’s World Cup, and you’re looking at players who are deserving of a serious rest. City are no exception as in the past month they’ve had the following key players on the shelf: Benjamin Mendy, Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and Gabriel Jesus, five of Pep Guardiola’s first choice players.

City have built a side to not be over reliant on one or two players and rather bring the best out of each and every player in their XI. Oleksandr Zinchenko, Danilo and Aymeric Laporte have all provided stable cover for Mendy, David Silva, Bernardo Silva and Gundogan have all filled the massive hole left by De Bruyne’s ongoing injuries this season, while the veteran presence of Vincent Kompany, Nicolas Otamendi and Sergio Aguero have all logged key minutes in the absence of their positional competition. Not to mention, they are a side blessed with so much talent that club-record signing Riyad Mahrez can’t even get regular game time in the league. While that is frustrating for the former PFA Player of the Year, he’s benefitted from not playing as many minutes as others and is looking to be a key player down the stretch for Manchester City.

While the Citizens have done enough to be in first place, they still only have a one point lead with 24 points to play for and two other competitions ongoing while an incredible Liverpool side are itching to take home their first ever Premier League trophy. While the two sides won’t meet again domestically this season, they’ll both be watching one another’s matches as the season comes to a close.

Liverpool are a side who so heavily rely on key players: Virgil Van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Gigi Wijnaldum and have benefitted from those players largely remaining healthy over the course of the season. However, with the added games of the Champions League and the amount of minutes those key players have played, it will be a fight for Liverpool to try and get the best out of them throughout the rest of the campaign.

Looking at other title challengers Tottenham, they are a side who started off the season on a historic pace for their club and were challenging Liverpool and City really up until this past month. However, they made it to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, are still competing in the Champions League and were in the FA Cup, all while not investing in any senior players the past two transfer windows, truly an incredible achievement given the amount of spending their competitors took part in. However, they’ve now lost nine games in the league and are hanging on to a spot in third and their title race is all but over. While their team is filled with talent, players like Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, Heung-Min Son have all been asked to play so many games across all four competitions and it’s clearly affecting the Spurs side.

While this is touted as a title race that will come down to match week 38, when you look at the amount of quality Manchester City can put out on a game to game basis, regardless of the amount of injuries to the team cannot be understated. Looking at this past weekend’s matchup against Watford, Manchester City were without De Bruyne, Stones, Fernandinho and Benjamin Mendy and still put out a bench consisting of Aymeric Laporte, Danilo, Fabian Delph, Leroy Sané, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus, players capable of starting for majority of the other teams in the Premier League. Having this depth in every position has been key all season long as Pep has been able to rotate players and try to keep them all fresh while fighting in four competitions and in my opinion that’s the most important factor as they look to win back-to-back Premier League titles for the first time in club history.