Throughout this weird, truncated season, the constant wisdom has been that teams with the fewest players in Qatar will prosper once the club stuff kicks off again.
The reasons for that seem sound: players not at the World Cup will obviously boast freshness over the festive period and beyond, while those on international duty were likely to return physically weary and potentially mentally as well.
But as is often the way, Pep Guardiola went against the grain. Manchester City’s manager is quite insistent that the reverse might be true – certainly over the next few weeks – and that actually, those who stayed behind should find it more difficult to reacclimatise with the domestic schedule.