ANDY
And a hat. Phil Foden had been stood in the bone-chilling wind, waiting for a perfunctory five minutes of involvement, but his manager did not want to send him on while Manchester City were defending a corner.
The ball then remained in play for a minute or so and Pep gave him one last pat on the back and despatched the teenager back to his bucket seat.
The young Englishman described as a “diamond” by Guardiola a few days ago could not even get a token run-out in the final throes of a routine win.
That, among other facets of this resumption of normal service, typified City’s continuing strength.
After last weekend’s setback at Stamford Bridge, Guardiola claimed he had only 15 fit senior players.
This weekend, sat alongside Foden were Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling.
This remains a City squad of formidable strength.
De Bruyne made his latest comeback with a 19-minute cameo, Sterling popped home a header to score City’s third with his first touch and Fernandinho, after being rested in midweek, was magnificent.
And, on what he described as the coldest day since he moved to England, what warmed Pep most was surely the two-goal contribution of Gabriel Jesus (right).
Against Chelsea, Guardiola started without a conventional striker, so strong were his reservations about the form of Jesus.
In hindsight, he probably considers that a rare tactical misstep, even though Jesus’ previous goals had