For Manchester City's trip to Liverpool today, Pep Guardiola has named the same starting XI that beat Chelsea 1-0 eight days ago.
City arrive at Anfield looking to round off a tough run of fixtures with a win, having lost to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Naming unchanged line-ups for Premier League games was practically unheard of for Guardiola until this season, when he selected the same team for three consecutive games.
That was more because he didn't want to drop players, like Gabriel Jesus, who were playing well. This time, Guardiola has revealed that he has found a formula for facing City's title rivals.
At Stamford Bridge last weekend, City dominated the game by starving Chelsea of the ball and preventing them from winning possession in dangerous areas. This effectively forced Chelsea to rely on counter-attacks as their only attacking outlet, an approach that saw Thomas Tuchel's team register zero shots on target.
City did that by pressing intensely high up the pitch. On the teamsheet, Phil Foden lined up as a false nine with Jack Grealish and Jesus either side of him, but in practice, Kevin De Bruyne pushed up into the final third to form a four-man press. The plan worked to perfection and Chelsea were prevented from gaining a foothold in the game.
In the midweek defeat to PSG, Guardiola opted to deploy Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez in his forward line, but admitted afterwards that the pair are not as good at pressing as Foden and Jesus, whom they replaced in the side. While overall City played well in Paris, it was clear to even the most casual observer that the press was not quite so effective.
Reinstating Foden and Jesus to his starting XI is a clear sign that Pep has found his big-game plan for this season. No longer will he 'overthink' like in seasons past; the formula against Chelsea worked, the one against PSG didn't.
Liverpool are a team that can devastate opponents with their verticality and pace up front. The solution, in Guardiola's view, appears to be to deny them opportunities to attack. How do City do that? By pressing hard and winning the ball back.
Coming up with a plan for one game and then using it for a subsequent fixture against very different opposition seems pretty un-Guardiola like, but that is what he appears to have done.
It's a reminder that tactical innovation and tweaks aren't the only signs of a top coach - sometimes realising what works and sticking with it is just as important.
