This article is part of Football FanCast's In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets...

Picture this. You're a Premier League footballer. You haven't played since early April having suffered a groin injury that required surgery. You lose your place in the team after a new face arrives in the summer.

But, you are then thrown in against the back-to-back Premier League champions, having not played a single minute of first-team football since your injury.

That is the story of Crystal Palace's James Tomkins.

The former West Ham man - who cost the Eagles £10m back in 2016 - was handed his first Premier League start since the 1-0 win over Newcastle back in April when Manchester City came to Selhurst Park on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola's side have scored 201 goals over the course of the last two league seasons before the current campaign - 106 in 2017/18, and 95 in 2018/19 - possessing a wealth of attacking talent such as Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne.

In that respect, and given the circumstances, you couldn't have complained too much if Tomkins delivered a stinker of a performance, but the 30-year-old fared quite well in his first taste of first-team action since April.

The Englishman made two tackles and two interceptions, while also making four clearances as Roy Hodgson's side managed to keep the Citizens somewhat in check - conceding just twice to a side who put eight past Watford a few weeks ago, with both goals coming in the space of a few minutes.

Tomkins also completed 82.6% of his 23 passes against the champions, in what was a generally solid showing until he was substituted for Scott Dann in the 83rd minute - presumably to prevent a recurrence of his groin issue with the game already looking a tough one to overturn.

With Mamadou Sakho and Martin Kelly also injured, Hodgson had little choice but to throw Tomkins in at the deep end, and his performance against arguably one of Europe's best sides deserves praise.