Man City rediscover two key traits to send ruthless message to Liverpool and Arsenal

The Club World Cup might not yet have fully caught the football world's imagination, but for Manchester City, a sticky afternoon in Orlando in late June might just prove to be a key staging point in their rejuvenation.

Whisper it quietly, but this was the City of old. A controlled, slick performance full of threat and intent, and if they were paying attention, the kind of display that would have made those in charge at Anfield and the Emirates sit up and take note.

The Blues will want their title back this season. After two easy workouts at the Club World Cup, they stepped up in their biggest match to date and found a rhythm that only hinted at good things to come. Let's not get carried away and say City are back, but they are certainly on the right path.

Pep Guardiola's message to his squad at their Boca Raton base on the eve of this tournament was to forget last season, to consign it to the history books. As far as official records are concerned, the stats being tallied up in the United States are part of 2024/25. As far as the City are concerned, this is the opening salvo of 2025/26.

It has allowed Guardiola and his players to draw a line under their difficulties of last season. Eight new signings in 2025 - half in January and half in June - have injected some freshness into the squad and the time they have had together up the coast from Miami is proving beneficial.

It's worth remembering that during City's most disappointing spell of last season, they lost to Juventus. That 2-0 defeat in Turin helped condemn them to a Champions League play-off and defeat to Real Madrid.

Seven months on, they looked like a different team. Juventus did get themselves back in the game early on after an Ederson mistake, but other than