Manchester City without Kelvin De Bruyne and Rodri is an overhyped team. The absence of both players have had a negative impact on the team’s performance in the last three games including defeat to Arsenal this weekend which is the most recent lose they have conceded.
With Pep noticing the importance of these players and how their absence can seriously affect the teams performance, he is a smart man and will not want to remain limited to them, so that if there is another time like this this season in all the competitions they play were they have to be without Rodri, that their team will still be able to maintain their high performance. This two losses in the premier league does not mean that they cannot still go on to win the premier league again, it just shows that they are not very strong this season.
I do not agree that they are not very strong this season because they have almost the same squad as last year and they also added an important defender like Gvardiol to the team. They still maintain their good squad from last year and are still one of the strong teams in the EPL. I think they are still the strongest teams for the championship.