Manchester City kickstarted their defence of the Premier League title with an impressive 2-0 win against West Ham United at the London Stadium.
Erling Haaland stole the show with a brace on his domestic debut, but there were plenty of other reasons to smile for Blues supporters, with the likes of Rodri, Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo all producing imperious performances and putting down markers for the rest of the season.
Pep Guardiola's side may have been slightly undercooked coming into the campaign — and a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Liverpool in the Community Shield showed that — but City were back to their thrilling best on Sunday, dominating proceedings after a quick opening burst from the Hammers.
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Before the game, the big team selection surprise saw Barcelona-linked Bernardo Silva on the bench. The Portuguese international has been instrumental to City's success in the past 12 months and was expected to line-up next to Kevin De Bruyne in midfield.
Other than that, it was interesting to note the inclusion of both Phil Foden AND Jack Grealish. The England pairing have played together before — with Foden as the false nine — but never as a wing pairing and many supporters were excited to see how they performed.
Playing on the right was a relatively new role for Foden. His technical brilliance means he has the capabilities of playing anywhere across the front three and midfield, but using his left foot to cut inside was certainly a new challenge for him, from a tactical point of view.
Riyad Mahrez is usually Guardiola's most trusted personnel in that area of the field, but the Algerian was rested after playing large parts of all three pre-season friendlies. Haaland's presence up-front has created a lot more space for the wingers to operate — and it doesn't take much for Foden to be deadly in and around the box.
Admittedly, the 22-year-old himself was not at his free-flowing best, but his play did allow space for City's other destroyers to cause a whole host of problems.
Grealish did the same on the left, and it was his excellent play that triggered City's second goal. Keeping the ball neatly in the Blues' own third, he dragged multiple West Ham defenders into the press and fired a ball into Rodri, who picked out De Bruyne and the rest is history.
Guardiola will surely be encouraged by what he saw. City, after an early period of pressure, were dominant in possession and could speed up or slow the tempo of the game at will. A lot of that was thanks to the work of Foden and Grealish on the wings, so don't be surprised if we see this system multiple times throughout the season.
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