Matija Nastasic and Micah Richards were both ruled out before Monday's game due to injury and Vincent Kompany joined them on the sidelines, after he overstretched his groin when challenging Sammy Ameobi in the 70th minute. This has left Pellegrini with the choice of either Javi Garcia, the defensive midfielder or Dedryck Boyata, the former youth product to partner Joleon Lescott in defence for Sunday's trip to Cardiff and potentially next week's visit of Hull. Both players' abilities have been questioned in the past and it'll be interesting to see if Pellegrini does in fact dabble further in the market before the transfer window closes a week on Monday. His summer-long pursuit of Pepe has so far proven to be futile but it shows that he's acknowledged that there's a potential lack of depth at the back, especially if the injuries continue to mount.