The Premier League is back, and Manchester City are certainly gearing up for another title chase.
Jack Grealish may not want to watch the first-half highlights back but there was more than enough in the 3-1 win over Leeds in City's first league match since their November loss to Brentford to justify their tags as favourites to lift the trophy again.
With Arsenal showing no sign of slowing down at the top of the table, Pep Guardiola will be delighted to take three points home to Manchester. The Blues boss will do so content in the knowledge that he has the best defensive midfielder in the city and the league - and another diamond emerging.
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Guardiola needed no invitation to talk up the difficulty of facing Leeds at this time, and that was before he made the decision to leave a host of his World Cup stars on the bench. Joao Cancelo failed to start for just the third time in 53 Premier League games as he joined Kyle Walker, Phil Foden, and Bernardo Silva on a star-studded bench.
Teenager Rico Lewis was named in the XI for his full competition debut after impressing in the cup win against Liverpool and while it was deserved, once again Guardiola has swum against the tide in the division in terms of using his returning internationals. It may be to City's benefit over the next few months, yet in the immediacy of a tricky fixture raised eyebrows - not least because he himself had recently said the players who had not been involved at the World Cup lacked match sharpness.
Lewis deserves to be talked about for his excellent performance though, which involved the difficult task of playing alongside Rodri in defensive midfield for most of the night. He deservedly took the acclaim of the City fans for a performance that showed outstanding quality and maturity in the most difficult role, the 18-year-old as adept putting in crunching challenges as he was making buccaneering runs into the box.
Grealish was guilty of passing up a golden chance to give Lewis his first assist when he skied over the bar with an empty net waiting to complete a difficult first half for him. Nothing says welcome back to club football like being called a soft Brummie b****** after being floored for a challenge that doesn't even get you a free-kick, yet Grealish frustrated his own set of supporters with a number of missed chances and possession lost.
It is the mark of a very good team to have a range of players who can step up and it was Lewis's more senior teammate Rodri who popped up with the goal Grealish and the other forwards had failed to deliver just before the half-time whistle went. More good work from Kevin De Bruyne resulted in a Riyad Mahrez shot that Ilian Meslier could not hold and Rodri was there to score at Elland Road for the second successive season; United fans may be getting giddy about Casemiro but City would not change their No.16 for anybody.
In the season of giving, City were gifted a second shortly after the break when Robin Koch failed to anticipate a short pass from Liam Cooper and Grealish robbed possession. The No.10 hared forwards and unselfishly squared it to give Erling Haaland his 25th goal of the season and further take the sting out of one of the fixtures with traditionally the most bite.
Ten minutes later, a brilliant team move that flowed from back to front ended with the same treatment, Grealish generously knocking the ball back for Haaland to fire home - this time with his right. A brace of assists will certainly help Grealish's cause in the endless debate around him, while with minimum fuss Haaland broke another record as he became the first player to score 20 league goals in 14 games. To give another glimpse into his prowess, the previous record was 21 matches.
Pascal Struijk pulled one back for the home team with 20 minutes to go, punishing City from a set-piece. As the players get used to being in the same team again after flying back from the World Cup, Guardiola and his staff will expect those errors to be eradicated from play.
What was shaping up to be a frustrating evening became relatively simple though, and for a first outing back after such disruption it is difficult to be too bothered by such lapses. City were much improved on their Brighton defeat, dominating possession and (belatedly) carrying a goal threat to take the game beyond their opponents
Rodri showed the level of performance that has seen him become one of the most important players in the team since the beginning of last season, and next to him for a good hour Lewis gave another reason for Blues to be positive about the long-term. Cancelo and Walker will not expect to lose their place in the long-term, yet Lewis becomes a more credible option in the team with every appearance he makes.
At the very least, the teenager reduces the burden on Walker and Cancelo - and the need for the hierarchy to line up a long-term successor for Walker. It is very early days, but enough of the right people are saying enough of the right things about Lewis to give City a potential pick that has come out of the blue.
Looking more to the present, City are back into second place in the league - ahead of Newcastle and five points behind Arsenal ahead of their New Year's Eve game with an under-pressure Everton. If the Blues can match this level of performance, there will be plenty to look forward to in 2023.
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