But one of his key strands is a kind of throwback role, something from the 1990s: the rampage-midfielder, the Gerrard-archetype, the knees-high, shooting powerhouse who drives from box to box, shoots from distance, Captain Marvels around the place and who might, in a Pep Guardiola team, seem a little risky and out of kilter. He has the standard broad portfolio of roles, from deep midfield to false nine. Kevin De Bruyne is an unusual presence in some ways.

This meeting of first v second boiled down into a kind of slow-burn tactical arm-wrestle, a struggle for space decided by a startling moment of thrust from perhaps the most interesting player in CityвЂ™s ranks. Really? Can we factcheck this? Can we have a deep dive into exactly when and how this happened? The strangest thing about the table isnвЂ™t CityвЂ™s 13-point lead, but the bit that states they have apparently lost two games along the way. But then, this is where we are now, the pitch of sustained performance attained by this brilliantly relentless sky-blue machine.

In the event Chelsea played out most of this game like a high-grade FA Cup minnow in search of a lucrative replay.

It would be churlish to suggest that the home fans failed to appear suitably wowed, zapped or gripped with ecstasies at the realisation, two weeks into January, that this was pretty much it, another Premier League title all-but-lassoed in by a measured victory against a Chelsea team billed (it says here) as Manchester CityвЂ™s closest challengers.

Wild n out girls flash