There are luxury playmakers and then there is Giovani Lo Celso.
If anybody thought Tottenham Hotspur were buying a lightweight Argentine from La Liga who would struggle to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League then they could not have been more wrong.
Lo Celso had already proved that he's going to be no pushover in the English top flight in recent weeks, but his latest performance, against wave after wave, of Manchester City attacks, required the 23-year-old to show the steel behind his skill.
He became something of a defensive midfielder, albeit with the touch of a playmaker.
Lo Celso was joined in the centre of the park by birthday boy Harry Winks and the pair were a couple of Energiser bunnies, sprinting around trying to break up City attack after attack.
For Winks, this was further proof that in the biggest of games Jose Mourinho can trust him.
The young England international has always been one for the biggest stages. He has shone against some of Europe's top teams in the Champions League since coming into the first team set-up a couple of years ago.
In last season's final in Madrid he was Tottenham's best player, despite it being his first match in two months following an ankle injury.
Under Mourinho, Winks had to earn his spot in the team after sitting on the sidelines in the early weeks, but he is now enjoying a regular run in the side and it has been in a deeper, holding midfielder role than he was used to under Mauricio Pochettino.
Winks is very much still a player learning his trade, and his confidence has ebbed and flowed in the past 12 months.
Pochettino used to call him his 'Little Iniesta' and said he had the attributes to be the perfect midfielder, but Winks has yet to find that attacking edge to his game and the required creativity to become the all-round package.
Mourinho appears to be trying to develop him to become similar to another Spaniard - Ander Herrera.
The midfielder, now at PSG, had similar qualities and stature to Winks, and that bite in the tackle and Mourinho often used him in a deeper, mopping up role at Manchester United.
Some had written off Winks in the past 12 months, believing he would be the odd one out with Mourinho's clear admiration for Eric Dier and the arrival of Tanguy Ndombele, plus the form of Lo Celso.
The England man has held his own though, particularly with Dier failing to remind Mourinho of the midfielder he once coveted, and against the champions, Winks put in his best performance of the season so far.
His growing confidence was summed up by the marauding run through the centre of the pitch which ended up with Oleksandr Zinchenko crudely bringing him down to earn the second yellow card that changed the game.
Alongside him, Lo Celso offered the composure and clever use of the ball that Tottenham needed when the pressure was on.
The Argentine uses the ball so well, knowing when the time is right to motor up the pitch, past flying challenges and when it's the perfect time to release a through ball or chipped effort over the top into an attacker's run.
If Mourinho had any doubts over Lo Celso they have vanished in 2020 and the Argentina international has now started five games in a row and he's looked good in every single one of them.
Mourinho calls his evolution 'incredible' and Lo Celso is only just starting to adjust to the Premier League, hinting that there is plenty more to come. Tottenham making his loan deal permanent this week was the confidence boost he needed as well, making him feel truly part of the club.
He's not just a passer or a dribbler, he works hard, tracks back, launches into tackles and uses his strength to shield the ball in tight spots. In the post-Eriksen era, Lo Celso gives Tottenham a very different kind of playmaker.
Then you can throw Ndombele into the mix. The Frenchman has had his fitness and injury woes this season, more persistent than Lo Celso's own problem - that early hip injury which kept the Argentine out for two months.
Ndombele showed within minutes of coming on just how difficult he is to play against, turning City inside out before setting up Son for Tottenham's second goal. He is a special talent and just needs careful development as his body adjusts to how quickly his career has escalated in the last two years.
Mourinho might have no striker to call upon, but he's now got very good options across the rest of the pitch and in central midfield he has a very talented bunch to call upon, not to mention the even younger midfielders Gedson Fernandes and Oliver Skipp.
It may be that playing Lo Celso, Winks and Ndombele together is the way forward for Mourinho in the centre of the park and across all three he will boast the power, skill, dribbling ability and creativity to take on any other midfield in the country.
With two of them just 23-years-old and Winks having turned 24 on Sunday they are malleable midfielders for Mourinho to develop as he sees fit and if he gets it right they can go on to be the axis of Tottenham's midfield for years to come.
