Leicester City inflicted Pep Guardiola’s first serious trauma in English football back in that chilly winter of 2016.
There was an air of mockery at the King Power Stadium in the post-match press conference after a shock 4-2 defeat, as the Manchester City manager stated that he did not coach tackling.
His team selection and tactics were also openly questioned, and this match, more than any ever, gave rise to the notion that he was Fraudiola.
He was, went the narrative, a manager who could operate at big clubs with big budgets, and here he was at a little club with a big budget, and struggling against a team placed 15 in the table.
Looking back, those words are empty and hollow.
And when City face Leicester at the Etihad Stadium on Monday night, the transition from that unholy mess to today’s record-breaking, trophy-collecting, beautiful football machine, could be complete.
If Liverpool fail to win a tricky fixture at Newcastle on Saturday night, the Blues could virtually seal back-to-back titles with a win.
Given that City were four points off leaders Chelsea going into that game, having lost at home to them the previous week, it was strange that Guardiola’s stock has never been lower.
He had lost his “spine” of Nicolas Otamendi, Fernandinho and Sergio Aguero going into the game.
His re-shuffle simply did not work.
It was difficult to work out if he was playing a back three which included Bacary Sagna and Aleks Kolarov, with Pablo Zabaleta as holding midfielder, or a back four in which the Argentina right back was bing told to invert and so spend much of his time in midfield.
With Fernando drafted in to replace Fernandinho, Kevin De Bruyne isolated on the left wing and Kelechi Iheanacho leading the attack, the team was a mish-mash.
They were two down within five minutes as gaping holes appeared in the defence and goalkeeper Claudio Bravo looked like a man short on confidence.
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He had gone from playing behind a slick, well-drilled Barcelona outfit to being the last line of defence in an embryonic, uncertain side – with Vincent Kompany later admitting that at times it felt like Guardiola was speaking Chinese as he tried to get his ideas across.
John Stones also had a nightmare, culminating in an underhit backpass for the fourth Leicester goal – and some critics declared that Guardiola’s fancy-dan foreign idea would never work in the high-paced, bruising environment of English football.
Fast forward two and a half years, and Guardiola and his players have made them all look silly and premature.
Six of the players who started at the King Power that day - Iheanacho, Fernando, Jesus Navas, Kolarov, Zabaleta and Sagna - have been moved on, and Bravo has become second- or maybe even third-choice.
And City have bought one of their chief tormentors that day, paying a club record £60million to land Riyad Mahrez.
But again this season, a trip to Leicester proved damaging – and the common factor was the loss of Fernandinho and injuries affecting the defence, with Vincent Kompany and Benjamin Mendy injured, and Fabian Delph drafted in at left back.
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Delph had a nightmare, culminating in a rash tackle which earned him a red card, and City lost 2-1 to lose ground on leaders Liverpool.
Those two defeats mean that City have only dropped more points against Liverpool, Chelsea and Everton than they have against Leicester
The team which Guardiola will put out against Leicester on Monday will look – and perform – very differently, even if Fernandinho fails to recover from his knee injury in time.
The formula is now tried and trusted, and with Ilkay Gundogan recently excelling in the holding role, and Aleks Zinchenko proving a reliable and inventive left back, they are in a far healthier state than they were in 2016, or indeed, in December.
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