One of Manchester City’s achievements this season has been to make every other club in the Premier League measure themselves against Pep Guardiola’s team. And of course, they all fall short by comparison.

Antonio Conte, the Chelsea manager, pointed out after victory over a stubborn Southampton side that eight wins and a draw from ten games would certainly be regarded as a good run, except that “we see that there is another team that is winning every game.”

And it was hard to escape the sense that the Italian feels aggrieved that his own achievements, both last season and this, have been overlooked while the football world lauds Guardiola’s. Chelsea are the reigning champions, face Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, are in the Champions League knock-out stages and on course to finish in the top four. Yet all he hears are rumours about his impending replacement.

“Every day there is speculation about my future,” he said. “It’s not right because I think I deserve a bit of respect for what I did last season, for what I am doing this season. To read every week: ‘Next season the club contacts this coach or this coach’ - for me this is not a problem. But it can create problems with the players because the players believe we could [drift] apart.