After watching his players close out a hard-earned and richly deserved 1-0 win at Leicester City, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola hit upon some familiar themes.
As he so often does, he praised the Premier League champions’ overall play while ruing the missed chances that got away.
Following 5-0 strolls against Norwich City and Arsenal, the Blues had to toil at times and goalkeeper Ederson copped a bloodied mouth for his troubles.
Negotiations between FIFA and the Premier League meant Guardiola only found out just hours before the game that he would be able to field his Brazil international between the posts - an unusual and particular problem of the pandemic age, but the fearing ill-effects of players going away with their countries is nothing new.
“After the international break always you have doubts but the mentality of the players was incredible from the first minutes until the end,” Guardiola said after Bernardo Silva’s 62nd-minute goal that was deliriously received in the away end.
“The big signal [that we can] be solid during the season is the way we played. The last three games we were incredibly good and that’s why our victory is there.”
Even by his own standards of lively animation, Guardiola cut a fraught figure at times in the east midlands - crouching in anguish, hands and fingers dug into his face, all the hits.
There were plenty of good reasons to place such high stock on the game.
After an opening weekend defeat at Tottenham, City needed to get their campaign up and running on the road. There are few tougher places to do so than Leicester, given the high-quality and well-drilled side Brendan Rodgers has honed.
But these games that come around immediately after the September internationals, preceding the start of the Champions League as we get into the meat of the season, have served as a barometer for how City’s campaigns might unfold.
In September 2017, the Guardiola era was without a trophy and City were yet to truly convince. An opening win over Brighton was followed by a 1-1 draw against Everton, where Kyle Walker was sent off on his home debut, and a last-gasp 2-1 victory at Bournemouth thanks to Raheem Sterling.
Liverpool arrived at the Etihad Stadium when domestic action resumed and had the better of the opening exchanges but Sergio Aguero stuck first.
Sadio Mane was then sent off - Ederson head injuries are apparently a feature at this time of year - and City ran riot, racking up a 5-0 thrashing of Jurgen Klopp’s side.
They did not look back. The Liverpool win ended up being the second of a record 18 consecutive Premier League victories, a run that proved to be the backbone of a triumphant 100-point campaign.
By 2019/20, City were looking to make it three in a row, having fought to the last with Liverpool for glory the previous season.
They won three of their first four games, with the finest performance in that bunch arguably coming when Tottenham inexplicably escaped from the Etihad Stadium with a 2-2 draw.
Following the September internationals, City headed to Norwich City for what felt like a formality but they were awful, eventually losing 3-2 after one of those games where it felt like a man with a loud klaxon should have followed Nicholas Otamendi around the field.
City never played with consistent poise from that point as Klopp’s men surged clear.
Saturday’s win at Leicester was a very different game to the Liverpool win and the Norwich defeat but the authority and determination on show gave Guardiola just the big signal he wanted at a time of the year when - for better or worse - his team tends to show us their true selves.
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