This was always going to be a testing season for the so-called best manager of all time.

How to follow a history-making fourth title in a row?

How to keep focused on the field when the club could be relegated for cooking the books?

How to keep players hungry when they’ve sated themselves on trophies?

And how to do all this in the final year of his contract?

‘Easy when you’ve got unlimited funds,’ some curmudgeons might say.

Nice problems to have, say others.

It’s anything but easy, although Pep Guardiola loves a challenge. It’s why he’s at Manchester City and why he went to Bayern Munich before that.

Both clubs are well away from his comfort zone at Barcelona where he built arguably the best club side of all time.

‘But there he had Messi,’ the curmudgeons will say. They even coined a word for it: ‘Messidependencia’.

Now, at City, there’s a new term: ‘Rodridependencia’ – and how he copes without the Spanish midfielder is perhaps Guardiola’s biggest challenge of all.

Even more than Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri is City’s most important player., the fulcrum of the side, the cog in the ever-turning wheel.

Less celebrated, but missed more than either of that pair on the rare occasions he’s been out.

Last season, De Bruyne missed almost the first half of it and Haaland was out for a chunk, too, but City still won the league.

Opinions are subjective but stats are not. Since February 2023, Rodri has lost just one game for club and country – last season’s FA Cup final against Manchester United.

That’s 93 games played, one defeat.

Yet when he was suspended last season, City did not win any of the three games he missed.

Since his arrival in 2019/20, they have won 74.1% of their EPL games with Rodri in the side and 61.9% without him.

On Sunday, Arsenal scored within a minute of him leaving the field.

Pep tried to put a brave face on it but had to acknowledge the gravity of the situation. “It’s his knee ligament and he will be out for a long while,” he said.

“When the team doesn’t play with the best midfielder in the world, for a long, long time, it is a big blow,” he continued.

“Rodri is irreplaceable. But in football it happens and my duty is to find a solution to be competitive and continue to be a problem for our opponents. I will find a solution. We will do it.”

The good news for City is that Pep has always done it before. In place of Haaland, he played Julian Alvarez in a slightly different role.

In fact, the Argentine even slotted in for De Bruyne and it needed a huge £81m offer from Atletico Madrid to prise him away.

Pep has always found a solution even if it has meant using two players for a single role and tweaking the rest accordingly.

He’s not had a proper left-back since he arrived yet has won the title six times.

But Rodri, after a slow start, has become probably the hardest to replace.

He, too, replaced the irreplaceable Fernandinho, and elevated that role to another level.

He has been so good that Pep is yet to find a deputy worthy of the name.

Kalvin Phillips, after an excellent Euros for England in 2021, was the chosen one, but never near Pep’s exacting standards.

Now on loan at Ipswich, he’s unlikely to be called back.

There’s also Matheus Nunes, who scored his first goal in 34 appearances for City in the Carabao Cup on Monday.

He joined for a similar £30m plus fee, but hasn’t cut the mustard either.

A left-field choice would be Rico Lewis, 19, who has played full-back for England but is a player Pep feels “can be a star in almost any position.”

It would be a huge gamble on a youngster, and it would more likely be a combined effort from trusted duo, Ilkay Gundogan, whose return Pep must be even more grateful, and Matteo Kovacic.

Neither are natural No.6’s but don’t put it past Pep, the Grand Master of the football chessboard, to produce something off the wall.

But a lot could hinge on De Bruyne, 33 with a dodgy hamstring, remaining fit enough to tee up Haaland.

If anyone can fix it, it will be Pep: a new face here, a tweak there, and it clicks.

But these may not be new pegs in the same holes; the shape of the holes could change.

And if nothing’s working, he does have the funds to lash out on a bit of Brazilian magic in January in the shape of Bruno Guimares of Newcastle or West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta.

Pep is already under pressure from what looks like a serious Arsenal challenge, as well as one from Liverpool.

And dare it be said, even Chelsea may be no pushovers.

There seems no complacency in the City squad while Haaland looks hungrier than ever and has added to his armoury.

Nor has the threat of relegation (when the verdict on the 115 charges is announced) been seen as a Sword of Damocles.

City insist they’re innocent and certainly act as if they have nothing to fear. Pep has remained positive throughout.

But the verdict is expected well before the season ends, so – depending on which way it goes – it could have an effect on the field.

That could make for a difficult run-in with players considering their futures before the season is over.

It could well be that Pep’s own future hinges on it which is why he’s delaying a decision.

But from the noises he has been making, he may well renew his contract if City are cleared.

If not, another sabbatical – he took one after Barcelona – or even the England job might be of interest.

Meantime, a win at fellow rich kids, Newcastle in Saturday’s (7.30 pm in Malaysia) early kick off will be his priority.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.