August: Let’s do this...

We have a lot of players with a lack of condition but we are more than two seasons together and know what to do. We made a good performance in general and day by day we will get better and better. I am privileged to be manager of Manchester City. They have given me a fantastic squad. I cannot complain for one minute. Pep Guardiola

“So,” the question might well have been, “how do you follow that?”

How, indeed?

Just a few months before, City had coasted spectacularly across the finish line with a perfectly scripted Gabriel Jesus stoppage time winner against Southampton to set the ‘Centurions’ tag in stone.

The rest of the Premier League had been powerless to stop Pep Guardiola’s side and by March, winning the title had been a formality.

Arguably, the only side who had even slightly ruffled the Blues’ feathers was Liverpool, who had beaten City 4-3 in the Premier League at Anfield – one of only two defeats in the entire 17/18 league campaign – and then both home and away in the Champions League.

The 5-0 victory at the Etihad against Liverpool had been well and truly erased and, despite finishing 25 points behind the champions, Jurgen Klopp’s side were only going to improve.

Still, the 19-point winning title margin over nearest challengers Manchester United suggested that City would still be the team to stop in 2018/19, though it was imperative the defending champions hit the ground running when the new season began.

Riyad Mahrez (pictured above) was added to the squad during the summer, but was the only major signing for City who, quite rightly, felt there was no need to fix something that clearly wasn’t broken.

The curtain-raiser to the English season, the FA Community Shield, pit City with a difficult-looking clash with Chelsea at Wembley, but a 2-0 win courtesy of a Sergio Aguero brace gave the Blues the perfect start to the new campaign.

A week later, City returned to the capital to take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Like Chelsea, the Gunners were also under new management and represented a sizeable obstacle to begin the Premier League title defence at – but we shouldn’t have agonised too much, as goals from Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva secured an impressive 2-0 win.

The champions had their stall out and the message was clear – we were still the team to beat.

Liverpool, however, started equally well with a comfortable 4-0 win over West Ham United at Anfield, giving Klopp’s men equal cause for optimism.

With City’s home campaign beginning with a 6-1 win over Huddersfield Town a week later, the champions were already sending out ominous warnings that there would be no Centurions hangover – not on Pep’s watch – and the rest of the Premier League had been duly warned – it was, it seemed, business as usual for the Blues.

Liverpool responded with a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace, but they were one of six teams in total to take maximum points from their opening two games. Chelsea, Spurs, Bournemouth and Watford also boasted embryonic 100% records.

City ended the month with a trip to the Black Country to face newly promoted Wolves in a Saturday lunchtime kick-off. It’s probably fair to say Wolves enjoyed being described as ‘the Championship Man City’ with their free-flowing, easy-on-the-eye style earning Nuno Esprito Santo’s side a handful for anyone at Molineux.

The Blues had won their previous eight competitive games on the road, but were far from their regal best against Wolves and when Willy Boly’s stumble inside the six-yard box appeared to end in the back of the City net via the defender’s arm, Pep Guardiola could only lament the fact that VAR for Premier League games was still a year off – particularly when TV replays showed Boly had indeed handled the ball. No matter – the goal stood.

The champions were behind and needed a response. It had been eight months since the Blues had last trailed a Premier League game, and a loss so early in the campaign to a newly promoted side would have removed the aura of near-invincibility City had created the previous season.

Fortunately, a thundering header from Aymeric Laporte on 69 minutes drew City level and though the game ended 1-1, Aguero hit the post David Silva might have had a penalty on another day. Combined with the Boly goal that shouldn’t have stood and the general feeling was the Blues had been slightly hard done by.

After the game, Pep said: “It was a very good point. We created chances but their keeper made saves, so today we draw. We knew how good they were last season. No complaints. We created a lot, that's why it's good. In the first half, Aguero hit the post - sometimes it goes in, sometimes not.”

Liverpool, meanwhile, laboured to a 1-0 win over Brighton a few hours later. Three games in and Klopp’s side had a two-point advantage. It didn’t feel significant, but they had started marginally better. Still, early days.