Dave Reay 

In all honesty, I didn’t think Man City would go to Stoke and win so convincingly. Dodgy penalty decisions aside, Guardiola’s men strolled to victory thanks again to Sergio Aguero (20 in 20 PL games in 2016) and summer signing Nolito.

For years now, Stoke have been notoriously hard to beat on their own turf but they look a shadow of what they used to be like. This was still the same Stoke (minus Xherdan Shaqiri who scored 9 goals in 48 apps under Guardiola) that beat Man City 2-0 with ease last December, just eight months ago. Marko Arnautovic scored both that day but the Austrian was nowhere to be seen on Saturday, much like the rest of the side.

Maybe it’s more down to Guardiola’s new tactics that he’s employed rather than a poor Stoke. You can never really judge pre-season line-ups and results but when Man City lined up against Sunderland on MD1, it seemed that Kevin De Bruyne & David Silva were given creative freedom in the middle of the park as part of a 4-3-3 formation with Fernandinho covering them.

Under Manuel Pellegrini, the system was either 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1, meaning Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling et al. would have to either play wide and cut in or only one would get to play as the creator number 10. Playing both De Bruyne and Silva centrally has allowed the pair to express themselves with the Belgian saying last week “The coach has his own tactics. I play not as a number 10 but as a free 8 with a lot of movement everywhere.”

This tactical change has also benefitted Sergio Aguero. Despite missing two penalties against Steaua Bucharest, the Argentinian has now scored six goals in three games under Guardiola. Last season, Aguero led City’s scoring charts in the EPL by a mile with 24 goals - Kelechi Iheanacho was 2nd with eight. In previous seasons, “Kun” has had reliable and often prolific striker partners such as Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko, Alvaro Negredo & Mario Balotelli (yes, the Italian scored 13 goals in 23 PL apps during 2011-12) which meant that he could drop deep and not have the pressure of being the main goal threat. Last season City were too reliant on their talisman which meant he would often drop deep to get the ball when starved of service and playing as a lone striker. Now, with De Bruyne and Silva both playing behind him, Aguero can just focus on playing closer to the opposition goal.