Micah Richards and Pablo Zabaleta successfully shared the right-back role last season as City won the title but the former's knee injury has allowed the Argentine to establish himself as arguably the best in the position in the Premier League.

Zabaleta has stood in as captain in the absence of Vincent Kompany - a privilege that has previously been bestowed upon Richards - and has already made two more league appearances than he did in the entirety of last season.

That has led to reports linking Richards with Arsenal. City have two options here: they can either retain Maicon as a deputy to Zabaleta and attempt to recoup some cash by selling Richards, or revert to the rotation system that worked so well in 2011-12.

The latter seems more likely for a variety of reasons - Richards is a better player than Maicon (and home-grown) and Mancini asks a lot of his full-backs, as evidenced by the continued time-sharing of Aleksandar Kolarov and Gael Clichy on the left - but it is a situation to monitor over the summer and beyond.