Just one player remains from Pep Guardiola's first XI against Arsenal that featured a meltdown

Manchester City hired Guardiola in 2016 and he did not waste time making vast changes to the team.

The signings of John Stones, Ilkay Gundogan, Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus and Claudio Bravo were just some of the new arrivals, aimed at reinvigorating an ageing squad that included Pablo Zabaleta, Aleksandar Kolarov and Yaya Toure.

A combination of injuries and suspensions left Guardiola with many of his big hitters missing when City took on Arsenal that season, which came just a week before Christmas.

Sergio Aguero was suspended as Raheem Sterling led the line alongside Leroy Sane and De Bruyne with summer signing Jesus also injured.

But Guardiola's defence was hit hardest with Vincent Kompany injured and Stones only just passing a fitness test to be on the bench.

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It meant Kolarov was forced to play as a centre-back along with Nicolas Otamendi, who City fans might remember not being the most temperate of defenders.

And with Bravo in goal and Fernandinho also absent, forcing Fernando to play, but where did they end up?

Sterling has since signed for Chelsea while Sane moved to Bayern, making City nearly £100million in the process through their sales.

Toure had an immense career at the Etihad but short stints in Greece and China would follow before retiring and he is now the assistant coach at Standard Liege.

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Silva is another who is fondly remembered at City and went on to play for Real Sociedad but a serious knee injury forced him to retire in the summer.

Among the other players to have retired since include Clichy, Zabaleta and Kolarov but, remarkably, Bravo is still going strong at the age of 40, playing for Real Betis.

Otamendi and Fernando are also still key players for their respective teams Benfica and Sevilla while De Bruyne is the only one remaining at City.

While he will not play against Arsenal this weekend because of injury, there is no doubt that the playmaker will go down as one of the best midfielders the Premier League has seen.

That proved to be the case when Arsenal opened the scoring through Theo Walcott, who dissected Otamendi and Zabaleta at right-back to slot in the first goal at the Etihad.

That was as good as it got for the Gunners, though, and as they faded that only pushed City on further as they came out for the second-half in electric style.

It took mere seconds before they equalised, through summer signing Sane after a looped ball over the top by David Silva, though if VAR was in place, there is every chance that the goal could have been ruled out via offside.

And if that infuriated Arsene Wenger in the away dugout, so did the second, though even he must have admired De Bruyne's sheer talent.

The Belgian made seven key passes on that day - more than anyone else - including an assist for Sterling in stunning fashion.

His cross field pass for Sterling's goal was a thing of beauty.

However, Wenger again insisted that this goal should not have counted as he claimed Silva was in an offside position and interfered with play.

The two goals led the Frenchman to rage at the officials in his post-match press conference, coming out with quite the statement.

Wenger said: "We conceded two offside goals, which is very difficult to accept in a game of that stature, but, as it is well known, the referees are protected very well like the lions in the zoo, so we have to live with those decisions."

City would go on claim victory and keep pace with Chelsea in the race for the Premier League title, though they would eventually lose out and finish third in Guardiola's first season in charge.

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Arsenal, meanwhile, saw their early season form crumble in the second-half of the campaign, falling out of the top four and ending up fifth.

They're a different beast now and Guardiola will know he has his work cut out, especially without star man De Bruyne.