It is going to become a familiar sight this season: Kevin De Bruyne picking the ball up in the middle of the pitch, lifting his head and playing a defence-shredding pass through for Erling Haaland to race away from his markers and slot a clinical finish past a despairing goalkeeper.
Who said that Pep Guardiola doesn’t know what to do with a striker? For Manchester City, the early evidence is that their new No 9 is not going to disrupt Guardiola’s passing machine.
The champions outclassed a limp West Ham side from start to finish and eased their way to a sleepy 2-0 victory thanks to two from Haaland, who followed up a first-half penalty with the kind of goal that suggests he is already on the same wavelength as his new teammates.
For City, the focus over the summer was finding ways to stay motivated. In a sense Guardiola has followed Sir Alex Ferguson’s formula of renovating from a position of strength, selling Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, but the principles remain intact.