Manchester City in a league of their own as chasing pack face uphill battle in new season

Forty summers ago, a new order for the top division of English football was celebrated by a middle-aged man in a grey-brown suit dancing awkwardly on the pitch. Luton Town had just saved themselves from relegation to the second tier. Their impish manager, David Pleat, jived with joy at the 1-0 win as, around him, Manchester City’s players, doomed to relegation by the result, held back tears.

Over the next two decades, City went up and down five times, an ancient history so distanced from where the club now find themselves that tales of City’s erratic past can scarcely act any longer as relevant cautions against future complacency.

As City embark, as favourites, on a new Premier League season on Friday, chasing a sixth title in seven seasons, they aspire to unprecedented standards: The three biggest trophies available - in the game’s most watched domestic league, the FA Cup, the European Cup - are theirs to defend. "We climbed the highest mountain," said City manager Pep Guardiola. "The history speaks for itself."

For Luton Town, that happy salvation day in 1983 remains a treasured, vivid memory, part of a long, jagged line that connects today’s version of the club to deep plunges in the hierarchy and, this weekend, to a fairytale high.

Luton have been relegated six times since they clung to top division survival at City’s old Maine Road stadium. Ten years ago Luton were in the fifth tier of English football. On Saturday at Brighton, they play for the first time in a Premier League fixture, having been outside the elite for the entire 31 years since England’s highest division was rebranded with the name ‘Premier’.

As evidence of how fluid English football is, Luton’s journey back to the upper floor is impeccable. They