Enzo Maresca has pointed to Arsenal's substitutes as Manchester City aim to beat their rivals to the Premier League title. The Gunners were too good for everyone last season and are early favourites to retain their crown following big changes at the Etihad.
City said goodbye to Pep Guardiola, Rodri, and Bernardo Silva as part of a raft of departures that brought in more than £300m in sales. They have spent even more, with nearly £430m invested to sign a whole new midfield in Enzo Fernandez, Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi, as well as improvements in attack.
Strength in depth on display
That strength in depth was on display in Saturday's win over Coventry as Fernandez came in to start after just two training sessions with the club when Nico O'Reilly picked up a back injury in the warmup. Anderson was voted man of the match in the stadium, and Bouaddi came on to see the game out as Coventry threatened.
Maresca is happy with his squad, but warned that such depth is a necessity to go all the way in the Premier League rather than an exception in the league. The Italian has paid attention to the changes Arsenal have been able to make in the opening games and is expecting them to be strong again.
Arsenal's options
"If you see since the Community Shield, we played the Community Shield and then Arsenal played two more games and had five changes in every game - two World Cup winners in Merino and Zubimendi, two English players in Madueke and Eze and I think the other was Hincapie," he said.
"If you want to be there in the end, you need options. Arsenal have options, we have options. More teams have options. But it's not just us. I'm very happy with the options we have and it's something that is important for us if we want to compete."
