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Pep Guardiola insisted last season he still had the players to compete with the best and they shone against Liverpool FC
Liverpool could not believe how easy they had it when they came to play Manchester City at the Etihad last season. What a difference nine months makes.
Much has changed for the Blues in that time, as evidenced by the starting lineups. Just four of the City XI who started in a limp 2-0 defeat last February were still deemed the best option for Sunday's game, and City have obviously been bolstered by their work in the transfer market.
What will please Pep Guardiola most though is that this win was not down to signings but coaching and responsibility. A manager who spent his 1,000th game giving a detailed tactical breakdown to captain Bernardo Silva as the rest of his team were celebrating their third goal, was belatedly vindicated for saying that his squad did not need ripping up when they were getting torn apart on a weekly basis last season.
Of course it helps when you have Erling Haaland fit, as City didn't for their last meeting with Liverpool. Even if he wasted an early opportunity to score from the spot, the Norwegian made up for it with a wonderful looping header to give City the lead in the first half.
Ruben Dias is another key man to have back and in form, with the defender showing signs of his best form in recent weeks. One tackle to deny Mo Salah after Gianluigi Donnarumma had come out too far was particularly impressive.
Other than that though, the stars of the show on Sunday were some of those four starters from that humbling defeat back in February - no more so than Jeremy Doku. Conor Bradley will see the Belgian in his nightmares for the rest of the season after being tormented by him every time he got the ball.
City's plan of quickly shifting the ball to Doku whenever they could was enormously successful all game, from the moment he won an early penalty to him curling in an unstoppable effort to put them 3-0 up. There has been plenty of frustration along the way, but Doku is now performing on a regular basis and embarrassed a full-back who had coped impressively this week against Vinicius Jr.
Supporting him, Nico Gonzalez also showed why Rodri's absence is increasingly less of a concern. He bossed the midfield and scored a crucial second goal just before half-time to make sure City's supremacy was reflected in the scoresheet.
Ahead of him, Phil Foden's resurgence continues while Silva and Matheus Nunes - two players who couldn't even get off the bench in February - were both outstanding. Both were written off during the worst of City's slump yet how wrong they have proven everyone to be.
Liverpool could rightly feel aggrieved about a Virgil Van Dijk header that would have levelled the game at 1-1 - at best it was a harsh interpretation of the law - but it should alarm the reigning champions how little they offered after walking the league. However much they could moan about officials, they were outclassed at the Etihad by a manager who is still at the top of his game and his team that is getting better and better.
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