Bigger, yes, but better? Pep Guardiola tweaks template for City's kick to the line

Champions have become less guardiolista to allow Haaland to flourish and it is telling the best player of late has been Gvardiol

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola Picture: Adam Peck

Familiarity inevitably breeds, if not contempt, then at least discernment. When Leicester won the Premier League what mattered was not how they had done it but merely that it had been done.

You could talk about the performances of N’Golo Kanté, Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, pontificate about how Claudio Ranieri had developed Nigel Pearson’s side or dwell on the significance of the discovery of Richard III’s body under a car park, but fundamentally all that mattered was that they had defied the laws of football finance and logic and that they had done it. But as Manchester City edge towards a sixth title in seven years, the manner of the win feels important.