Kevin De Bruyne is hinting at another big start to Man City season

Pep Guardiola may have endured a chastening first year in English football, but not only was the squad overhauled at the end of it but they endured perfect preparations for the 2017/18 campaign.

The final pieces of the manager’s Manchester City jigsaw slotted together during a summer camp in the United States that allowed Kevin De Bruyne to thrive. The Belgian looked like he would threaten to be the best player in England and he duly did, scoring six times and assisting nine in 21 Premier League games up to the end of the year in a string of talismanic performances to set up the Centurions campaign.

Injury ruined the following season but by the summer of 2019 as City toiled in the Shanghai heat in pre-season, De Bruyne was looking sizzling again. Asked if it was like having a new player again, Guardiola replied that it was like having the 2017 De Bruyne back.

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Before the year was out, the playmaker had seven goals and 12 assists from 19 league games - including two goals and eight assists from his first seven games. City were wobbling collectively but there was no stopping their star.

After a wretched autumn last year following another injury, De Bruyne produced the most productive season of his career following a remarkably consistent run that saw him average a goal or assist every game from mid-December until the end of the season; his last, the third against Aston Villa, showing how he drove City to the title right to the last day.

Going off what has been in evidence in Houston and Green Bay, there is no reason to think that prolific form cannot run into this season. Two goals against Club America were followed by an aggressively