Pep Guardiola and Manchester City’s sky blue wash will define this era

It seemed fitting that Manchester City should come storming back from the brink the way they did, Ilkay Gündogan soaring like a small, technically adept avenging phoenix to bullet his header very carefully into the top corner of the Aston Villa net. This is how they do this stuff around here. Not with more heat, more blood, more chaos; but with cleaner lines, greater clarity, a red mist of extreme precision.

Within six minutes of that opening act Pep Guardiola’s champions had completed the most beautifully orderly emergency comeback in English footballing history. And there is something genuinely fearless about being able to play football this way, to become more not less yourself when the pulse is pounding, time running short, the world closing in at your back.

It was fitting too that Gündogan, Guardiola’s first signing at City, should score the title-winning goal, his second of the game: and that Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne should be present pulling the strings, both of whom have been present for Guardiola’s entire span in England.

At the end of which, and for all the fine margins, this is the most definitive of title wins. City scored more goals, made more passes and had more possession than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues this season.

João Cancelo, Rodri and Aymeric Laporte made more passes than anyone else in the English top tier (Cancelo, an all-purpose influence, was also top 10 for tackles, dribbles and interceptions and 12th on shots at goal).

It has been a kind of total football, the domination of every metric, a sky blue wash applied across every surface of elite English football. At the end of which, this is also a good moment to take a breath. There is no suggestion Guardiola intends to