It is also testament, though, to the unparalleled resources at Guardiola’s disposal. Last summer, City made Riyad Mahrez its record transfer, paying Leicester City $79 million for his services. Mahrez made only 14 starts in City’s victorious Premier League campaign.

This summer has provided further evidence. As well as spending $72 million on Rodri, the Spanish midfielder, City this week made João Cancelo the most expensive fullback in history, in a deal worth around $70 million. (The cost was partly offset by the exit of Danilo, the Brazil defender, to Juventus, but still: City has now spent more than $250 million on fullbacks in three years.) Given that Kyle Walker remains, there is no guarantee Cancelo will be Guardiola’s first choice at right back.

Likewise, look at Leroy Sané, the German forward who appeared to have decided he wanted to move to Bayern Munich before sustaining a knee injury that has ruled him out for several months. Despite his obvious talent, Sané was not always a first choice last year, and yet City is holding out for somewhere in the region of $160 million for him. It is not prepared to be haggled down; there is no pressure to balance the books.

Yet Guardiola and City now bridle at even innocuous suggestions that some of the club’s success can be attributed to its purchasing power in the transfer market. City’s chairman pointed out earlier this summer, for example, that the team was not responsible for any of the most expensive signings in history. That his argument hardly presents the full picture of City’s financial resources does not necessarily detract from all that Guardiola has achieved — the travails of Manchester United prove rather neatly that spending money is no panacea — but to dismiss the relevance of it is disingenuous.

It also is why, for all the creeping animosity between City and Liverpool, the former should have welcomed the latter’s concerted challenge last year.

By keeping pace until the final weekend, Jürgen Klopp’s team made challenging City seem feasible, if not exactly straightforward. It created the impression that the riches at City’s disposal had not created an insurmountable advantage. This season is likely to expose that as an illusion.

It is not impossible that Liverpool might match its form of last year, but it is improbable. Not simply because the standard it set was so high, but because of the circumstances.