It was not victory by seven, eight or nine and not a crucial clutch win against an immediate rival either, but to watch Manchester City’s fourth Etihad outing of the new year already - a comfortable 3-0 win over 10-man Wolverhampton Wanderers - was to watch a team where everything is beginning to fall into place.
Take Gabriel Jesus, who is not only scoring again but smiling too, with nine goals in his five starts since a visit from friends and family before Christmas. In midfield, Fernandinho is fit again but also in excellent form, demonstrating exactly why he remains an integral figure in this team at 33 years of age.
At the back, Benjamin Mendy’s absence has not been seriously felt. City already won one league title without the full back, of course. Meanwhile, in goal, Ederson has not consistently matched the heights of his debut campaign but kept a first clean sheet in nine league games and ended the evening playing one-twos near the halfway line.
Perhaps most encouraging of all though is the return of Kevin De Bruyne. Named as a substitute by Pep Guardiola on Monday night, City’s best player was introduced on the hour mark and brought greater urgency to a team that had settled on simply going through the motions. It was his cross that forced the third, a Conor Coady own goal.
All this should be warning for the pretenders to City’s throne. To see De Bruyne - and later Sergio Aguero - rising off the substitutes’ bench when the champions were already comfortably ahead was a reminder of the immense depth Guardiola can call upon, but also his side’s extremely high ceiling.
This time last year, for example, De Bruyne, Fernandinho and David Silva made up Guardiola’s first-choice midfield and were arguably the three outstanding midfielders of the entire Premier League season. This year, they are yet to start a top-flight game together but City are still within just two favourable results of eradicating Liverpool’s lead.
How much better will they be once De Bruyne is playing regularly and consistently in Guardiola’s midfield? The same question applies at left-back, where despite questions over his future, Mendy still represents an upgrade on each of his alternatives. The France international is slated to return from injury in around a fortnight. City should only improve when he does.
Of course, improvement alone is not enough for City. They will be dethroned unless Liverpool slip up and offer them a route back to the summit of the table. Any City slip up, meanwhile, could be near-fatal considering the relentless pace at which Jürgen Klopp's side are picking up points.
The next month could be particularly significant. Three of Liverpool's next four league games are at Anfield. All four are against out-of-sorts sides meandering towards mid-table finishes. City, on the other hand, face awkward trips to relegation-threatened Huddersfield and Newcastle before entertaining Arsenal and Chelsea at the Etihad.
“I said to [the players] don't look at the schedule,” Guardiola said after Monday’s win. “Don't watch the calendar for the Liverpool games. Forget about it. Normally when that happens, you lose your games. You are distracted from what you have to do and then you lose your games. Then it's over.”
And yet, even though City appear to be entering their trickiest run of fixtures between now and the end of the campaign, they do so while in a resurgent spell of form, with key players returning to the fore after long spells out through injury and with a renewed belief in their ability to defend their title.
There is more to come from the defending champions, it seems. The question is: will it be enough?
