Whatever the reasons for Ruben Dias only making the bench against Chelsea, Pep Guardiola was only able to do so because of the quality of his other centre-backs.
John Stones returned to the Manchester City team after four games out and slotted straight in, but there was no need for an adjustment period with Aymeric Laporte. With Dias sitting one out, his Spanish teammate becomes the defender with the longest ongoing streak in the Premier League after starting the last eight matches.
Laporte has still featured less frequently in both the league and in all competitions than Dias or Joao Cancelo, but he is much closer to them this season; last year 13 outfield players were used more than him but this time it is only Dias, Cancelo, Bernardo Silva and Rodri.
Through his effort and talent, Laporte has smashed the idea that Dias and Stones are the best City partnership at the back and is now challenging the consensus that Dias is the best defender.
This is all the more impressive after the 27-year-old was one of those to think about leaving in the summer transfer window. Sitting out so many games was never going to go down well with such an ambitious player, and a defender that changed international allegiances months before the delayed Euro 2020 was also open to a move at club level in order to play more.
As with Bernardo, if the evidence of this season would open City's transfer stance - of being willing to letting unhappy players leave - to criticism that is only valid if other clubs are equally criticised for failing to snap up the players when they had the opportunity.
More worthy of discussion, just like with Bernardo, is the way Laporte has been able to apply his focus to Manchester this season and raise his level of performance to show once again that he is one of the best in his position. The defender wears his heart on his sleeve, which does not always sit well in a squad where the reaction to being left out of a starting XI can count against you, yet has shown impressive maturity to battle his way back into the team and stay there.
If it is a quirk of this campaign that a number of City's best performers explored moves away in the summer, it also says a lot about the type of characters in the dressing room that are fiercely ambitious to get what they want but are also capable of turning in high levels of performance even if their situation is not perfect.
City can be grateful that Laporte and Bernardo did not leave in the last transfer window, but satisfied that their performances this season have shown exactly why they were signed in the first place.
