Premier League leaders Manchester City have invested the total of £219.87 million on new players this summer.

Former AS Monaco left-back Benjamin Mendy is the summer’s most expensive acquisition Manchester City paid £51.75 million which only makes disappointment over his injury bigger and worse.

The French international is facing a lengthy layoff with a knee injury he sustained in his side’s Premier League victory over Crystal Palace last Saturday after being hurt in a tackle on Andros Townsend.

The Citizens hoped Mendy’s injury would not be that serious by Pep Guardiola conceded defeat by confirming his first-team star’s issue is far more serious than initially believed.

“Our first impression (is he) will be a little bit long, out of the picture, unfortunately for us.”, Guardiola said after the Champions League 2-0 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk.

Mendy attended the match on crutches and is due to travel to Barcelona this week for further tests. Still, his lengthy absence is likely to force Manchester City to splash out some additional cash to bring a replacement for former AS Monaco star in January.

“We will see in January,” the City boss said.

Guardiola has a couple of alternatives for Mendy in his squad. Danilo, Zinchenko, Fernandinho and Fabian Delph can all be slotted in left back as temporary solution.

The latter enjoyed a fantastic performance at left-back against the Ukrainian side this week impressing with 90% passing accuracy, 3 take-ons and 2 tackles won according to Squawka stats.

Fabian Delph also impressed last weekend when he capped a brilliant performance against Crystal Palace with a fantastic goal.

GIF – Delph 5-0. pic.twitter.com/A7K5b3xBVg

— InsiderCity HD (@InsiderCityHD) September 23, 2017