Manchester City are slowly gaining ground on Premier League leaders Arsenal, sitting just five points behind the north London side and the title race looks like it could be another interesting battle this season.

With the transfer window in full swing, Pep Guardiola will be potentially eyeing up a deal or two in order to strengthen their squad ahead of a crucial few months ahead.

One position which City have struggled with this term is the left back spot, with Joao Cancelo, Nathan Ake, and Sergio Gomez all featuring there with mixed success.

As a result, recent reports have linked the club with Real Madrid defender Ferland Mendy, who has yet to sign a new deal with the La Liga giants.

A potential transfer is suggested to cost something similar to the £47m fee Madrid paid to Lyon back in 2019, something that shouldn’t represent a problem for the vast City coffers.

Guardiola could also get an added bonus by the simple fact that Mendy is statistically similar to right-back Kyle Walker, who has had tremendous success at the club during his five-and-a-half-year spell.

According to FBref, the Englishman is the seventh-most similar player to Mendy across Europe’s top five leagues, and given how impressive Walker has been at City under Guardiola, he might be able to repeat the process, albeit on the opposite flank.

This season has seen the two full-backs register extremely similar statistics when it comes to pass success rate (92% to 89.2%), shot-creating actions per match (2.26 to 1.49), goal-creating actions (two to one) and aerial duels won (both seven).

Mendy could bring an elite mentality to the City squad, not only does he excel in traits Guardiola desires such as passing and dribbling, but he knows how to win at the top level, having won two La Liga titles and a Champions League trophy during his spell at Madrid.

Ex-teammate Raphael Varane labelled him “amazing” when they played together for Los Blancos and he could fit in very well at City.

It is a testament to just how well Guardiola’s side have played this term while using both a centre-back and right-back on the left flank and signing Mendy would solve this problem while adding in a player who is very similar to Walker, another bonus.