It was after a New Year game at home to Burnley in 2017 that Pep Guardiola first gave vent to frustrations at his new life in the Premier League.
In a tense and rather sarcastic interview with the BBC, the Manchester City manager said: ‘I have to understand the rules here in England. I know you are special.’
Guardiola’s team had started that day 10 points behind league leaders Chelsea. By the end of the great Catalan’s first season in England, City were third and the gap was 15.
It was fascinating to watch Guardiola toil in that first season and part of the reason for that was because we sensed that such difficulties would not last.
Guardiola’s vexation at the relentless nature of the fixture schedule, the way the game was played, and in particular refereed in England was real and ran deep. City’s new manager spent much of the campaign looking like a man trying to keep control of a kite on a blowy northern beach.
Arsenal will be looking to end their title drought after finishing second in the last two seasons
Man City have 115 charges hanging over them and it could be their last year with Pep Guardiola
Liverpool and Chelsea will hope for strong seasons under new managers Arne Slot (left) and Enzo Maresca (right)
In the end, though, City and Guardiola found the way to fly high, just as we suspected they would. City had hired the best coach in the world and deep down we all knew it. And now we are here, eight seasons on, with Guardiola’s City beginning the new campaign at Chelsea on Sunday having just won an unprecedented four straight titles.
Guardiola’s trophy count at the Etihad Stadium sits at 15 — six of them Premier Leagues — and it is reasonable to suggest that the longer he decides to stay, the higher that teetering tower of silver will reach up towards the sky.
And this leads us to one of the most intriguing stories of this new season. We have new managers at Chelsea (of course we do) and Liverpool, as well as one at Manchester United who still has as much to prove as anyone. But this could also be Guardiola’s last dance at City — his last season.
Out of contract at the end of the campaign, Guardiola’s messages on the matter have been mixed but inside his football club there is an acceptance that this may be the year that one of the greatest and most transformative managerial reigns in the history of our game comes to an end.
City still have 115 Premier League financial charges hanging over them. When will this end? How long is a lace in a football boot? When it does and if judgment goes against the English champions, we will look at many of their achievements in a different way.
In terms of the football and the development of tactics and players, however, Guardiola remains without peer. If his team are to be beaten to the line this time around, somebody will have to take steps forward because it’s unlikely City will hit reverse any time soon.
It is perhaps fitting that Guardiola’s ninth season starts at Chelsea. The London club’s latest coach Enzo Maresca was once on Guardiola’s staff at City but more tellingly he is the seventh Chelsea manager to walk through the door at Stamford Bridge since Guardiola arrived at City. It is City’s strategy, intelligence and confidence in what they do that continues to set them apart in England, rather than what they have spent in the transfer market in recent seasons.
Having said that, this season may well be the one when somebody sneaks past them and that team may well be Arsenal. Mikel Arteta and his side have run City close over the last two campaigns.
Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have ran Manchester City close in the last two seasons
Liverpool boss Slot has big shoes to fill following Jurgen Klopp's exit at the end of last season
Two years ago the gap between the teams was five points. Last season it was just two. Arteta has been at Arsenal for four-and-a-half years now and everything about his team points to one moving in the right direction.
The sale of a much-loved academy product Emile Smith Rowe to Fulham shows how exacting Arteta’s standards are at the Emirates. The 24-year-old was good, just not quite good enough. If Arsenal can find a forward to bring them another source of goals between now and the end of the window, I expect them to win their first Premier League title for two decades at the expense of a City team yet to strengthen considerably.
The depth of Liverpool’s challenge is harder to gauge at this point. The shadow of Guardiola’s great domestic rival Jurgen Klopp continues to hang heavy over Anfield and will do so until his replacement Arne Slot shows that he is capable of meeting so many of the challenges presented by a club of Liverpool’s scale.
It will be fascinating to watch the Dutchman as he tries to impose his playing style and his character on a team that carried Klopp’s personality in their heart and soul for so long.
Slot will not try to do things the Klopp way simply because it’s impossible. This will be a Liverpool team that will be different in so many ways this season and the one thing Slot will need as much as anything in his early days at Anfield is some patience.
That is something that appeared to have run out for Erik ten Hag long before last season reached its surprising denouement with an FA Cup win for his United team over City at Wembley.
Ten Hag’s results in the Premier League were so bad that United finished eighth with a negative goal difference and the truth is that it’s not that performance against City that saved Ten Hag, rather the fact United couldn’t find anyone to replace him.
Erik ten Hag remains on borrowed time and needs a strong start to the new season
So the bad news for Ten Hag is that he remains on borrowed time. The good news is United already look a far better outfit off the field and their recruitment has thus far demonstrated a conviction and certainty missing at Old Trafford for so long.
For all that he may yet find that problems associated with Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford have not yet gone away, Ten Hag should begin this season with a better squad than the one that started the last one. That is half the battle. The other revolves around whether the 54-year-old is capable of doing anything with it. How does a Ten Hag team play? After two years, does anybody really have any idea?
The other contenders for a top-four place look familiar. At Tottenham, Ange Postecoglou will hope for a fast start. He was everybody’s favourite manager at the start of last season and less so by the end. That’s often the way it goes at Spurs.
The Australian preaches a football creed that all but guarantees entertainment and if he can ally that to consistent results then much of that early fanfare will have been justified.
Spurs’ recruitment of the striker Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth may yet prove pivotal for club and player. Solanke showed signs last season that he was ready to take the next step and at the age of almost 27 he now has the opportunity to do it.
Dominic Solanke (centre) has the opportunity to take his game to the next step at Tottenham
Amadou Onana (pictured) is a shrewd signing for Aston Villa who sold Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby this summer
At Aston Villa, Unai Emery will face the same challenges that stood before Eddie Howe at Newcastle a year ago. The Spaniard will lead Villa into the Champions League having lost Moussa Diaby and Douglas Luiz, players who made 73 Premier League appearances between them last season.
The recruitment of midfielder Amadou Onana from Everton seems shrewd but this season will test the Villa squad like never before.
Newcastle suffered in this regard last season — finishing seventh as European football and injuries took their toll. This summer, Howe has muttered darkly about his future and with his two boardroom allies Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi now gone and a vacancy waiting to be filled at the English FA, Newcastle fans would be forgiven for approaching the season feeling nervous rather than excited.
Having said that, Newcastle have at least managed to keep Howe’s squad intact despite the demands of the Premier League’s financial rules.
Other British managers worth watching this season include Steve Cooper at Leicester, Kieran McKenna at Ipswich and Russell Martin at Southampton. The three men represent the newly promoted clubs’ best chances of survival.
Ipswich Town are back in the big time after more than two decades outside the top flight
West Ham have had a busy summer with Niclas Fullkrug among the new signings
Brighton, meanwhile, will start their campaign with a 31-year-old in charge. The Texas-born German Fabian Hurzeler has described himself as the ‘grounded one’, something that could certainly never be said about his predecessor Roberto De Zerbi.
At West Ham and Crystal Palace, there is also opportunity for progress under relatively new managers. Fans of both clubs seemed permanently dissatisfied last season and they have, at least, been presented with the change they called for.
West Ham — now led by the ex-Wolves coach Julen Lopetegui — have been ambitious in the market and it will be particularly intriguing to see if a traditional No 9 — Germany striker Niclas Fullkrug — can still flourish in the much-changed world of the Premier League.
Guardiola has tried many variations on that theme over the years, of course. No 9s, false nines and at times no nines. That has been part of his genius. Few coaches have shaped the way football is played in the top tier of English football quite like Guardiola. His influence is felt all the way down the English pyramid.
The smart money says this will be Guardiola’s last season at City. My punt is that it ends without the trophy he has started to view as his own.