When Harry Kane announced on August 25 that he would not be leaving Tottenham Hotspur after all, it felt like the sky was falling in on Manchester City.
The Blues had spent months pursuing the England striker, the whole affair turning into a saga when Spurs chairman Daniel Levy refused to negotiate a deal.
City put all their eggs in one basket and came away without the elite striker that Pep Guardiola craved. It looked like an embarrassing moment for the club.
Fast-forward one month and, given their respective starts to the season, it looks like City might actually be better off without Kane.
Just as things were starting to turn a little south for City - Guardiola's comments regarding match attendances and the dour 0-0 draw with Southampton didn't exactly boost morale at the Etihad Stadium - they put in a superb performance to earn a 1-0 win at Chelsea on Saturday.
City were note-perfect, with Jack Grealish and Gabriel Jesus causing havoc down the flanks, Bernardo Silva and Rodri impressing in midfield and Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte continuing their solid partnership at the back.
Pep's use of a double-false nine tactic was genius, as Chelsea's defence struggled to keep tabs on Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden as they floated around the middle of the forward line. City's pressing was on-point too, disrupting Chelsea's build-up play to such an extent that the European champions resorted to long balls.
If we are being nit-picky, then the only blip in City's performance was, once again, finishing. Gabriel Jesus scored the decisive goal but he, along with Grealish, missed a couple of glorious chances An elite striker like Harry Kane would have taken them, but with Kane in the team, City would not have been able to disarm Chelsea like they did.
It was the double-false nine system employed by Guardiola that allowed City to relentlessly press Thomas Tuchel's side. With De Bruyne and Foden occupying the space vacated by a traditional number nine, Jesus and Grealish joined them in forming a four-man pressing unit, often supported by Bernardo.
While Saturday's game was by far the clearest exhibition of City's pressing abilities this season, they have been doing it in other games too. On average this campaign, City have allowed 10.1 passes per defensive action (PPDA), bettered only by Liverpool's 9.9 (as per Opta).
This means that on average, in-between every defensive action they make (tackles, interceptions, fouls) City allow the opposition to make only 10 passes. We can conclude that Pep's team are pressing opponents very effectively and allowing them little time on the ball.
Last season Leeds United were the only side to reach single figures on that metric (9.3), owing to Marcelo Bielsa's obsession with intense pressing. When you consider Spurs' and Kane's stats, it's clear that he would not fit in with City's approach.
This season Spurs rank 10th in the Premier League in terms of PPDA, with a figure of 13. That shows that the London club don't apply pressure in trying to win the ball back anywhere near as much as City.
A look at Kane's individual performances this season, particularly his lacklustre display in Tottenham's 3-1 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday, is telling.
In 90 minutes Kane applied just five pressures, with none of them proving to be successful, as per FBref. By comparison, Son Heung-min and Lucas Moura, Spurs' other attackers, applied 16 and 13 respectively. Even Bryan Gil, who only played 21 minutes having come on as a substitute, bettered Kane's tally with seven.
As we saw last season and at Euro 2020 for England, Kane is more than capable of dropping deep out of the traditional number nine position and creating chances for teammates to run onto - but a pressing number nine he is not. It was the same story with Sergio Aguero when Guardiola arrived at City in 2016, yet the Catalan managed to transform his striker into a pressing machine.
At 28, Kane is the same age as Aguero was then, so perhaps he could change. However, every game he looks less and less mobile, not exactly the ideal profile for Guardiola to work with.
At the end of the day, it's easy to pass judgement on players in hindsight. With Kane in their starting XI, City might have scored three or four goals against Chelsea rather than one. But on the flip side, they would not have been able to dominate the game in the same way, thus allowing Chelsea more opportunities of their own.
At the moment though, sitting second in the Premier League with a trip to leaders Liverpool on the horizon, City look like they are doing alright without him.
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