Upon first examination of the Premier League champions' dominant 2-0 victory over cross-town rivals Manchester United last Saturday, one might have thought that City came into the match in fine form.
However, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola was not all too pleased with their display in their previous game, a 4-1 beating of Club Brugge.in the Champions League at the Etihad Stadium that took the Sky Blues top of their group, ahead of PSG.
Despite comfortably beating the Belgian outfit on the night, City were off their paces for nearly two-thirds of the game, and it was not until Guardiola brought on Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus in the 68th minute that the hosts broke away from their opponents.
According to Rob Dawson of ESPN, Guardiola voiced his displeasure with his team after the match, saying that he'd 'had enough' - before walking out of the dressing room leaving his players stunned.
Yet, that wake-up call appeared to be all the players needed as Guardiola and his coaching staff were said to be delighted with the intensity of training in the build-up the Manchester derby, and in turn produced arguably City's most dominant display at Old Trafford in living memory.
The high-intensity showing from Guardiola's men against the Reds was compounded with both of City's main title rivals dropping points, seeing City climb up to second place in the Premier League table, as Chelsea drew at home to Burnley and Liverpool lost 3-2 away at West Ham last weekend.
City have already made visits to Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham and Leicester in the league this season, having dropped just six points in those games.
After the international break, the Manchester side will build on their recent run of positive results ahead of a tricky set of fixtures against Everton, PSG and West Ham looming for Guardiola's men.
More must-reads: