It is around this time of the season when the bored, the bitter, the malevolent and the jealous begin to criticise the best side in the Premier League.
Remember all that LiVARpool chatter last season when they were about 20 points clear of the rest and hadn’t lost a game. That was funny.
Now it is Manchester City’s turn to be damned by fools. An hour into their game against Leicester City, as Pep Guardiola’s side prepared to move 17 points clear at the top of the table, it appeared to be the fashion to observe how dull ‘possession football’ was and how City’s brand of pass and move was killing the sport.