After the surge and the hope came a brick wall and a realisation. If this is to be the season when Pep Guardiola and Manchester City snap out of their slumber, then what a chastening way to realise how much more work is needed.
Where to begin with this debacle of a 2-0 defeat? How to quantify or explain an afternoon that simultaneously revealed a poor defence, an uncomfortable goalkeeper and a Tottenham side that was quite exceptional in exploiting all of the above?
Perhaps that duty should fall on the travelling Spurs fans, who covered a couple of bases with their chant towards the end: ‘It’s happening again, it’s happening again, Manchester City, it’s happening again.