Guardiola will once again take on a headlining role with £60m new boy Riyad Mahrez and the prodigious Phil Foden offering another dimension to his Premier League-winning side.
Amazon Prime are poised to serve up a warts-and-all glimpse of City’s emphatic march to the top-flight title last season.
But, based on the hunger and desire exhibited as City swatted Chelsea aside at Wembley, Guardiola and his squad are looking to raise their game even higher over the coming ten months.
All-time top goalscorer Sergio Aguero provided the cutting edge but City took Chelsea by the throat from the off and squeezed the final breaths out of the Londoners with their persistent high press and their imperious distribution. In truth, City should have been four or five goals to the good by full-time.
Kevin de Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Ederson and David Silva are all yet to return in time for next weekend’s big kick-off.
Yet if City’s priority this time around is going to be the Champions League anyway, Guardiola will sleep soundly knowing that this second string will make more than a few teams look silly this season.
Alvaro Morata’s 17th minute shot, high, wide and harmless, was Chelsea’s first touch in City’s box and their first shot of the game. Twenty six minutes to cause any threat at all to the newly-crowned kings of England. Welcome to the Premier League, Maurizio Sarri.
Aguero, remember, is no longer even Guardiola’s first choice up front. The future is Gabriel Jesus, nine years his junior at 21 and sat on the bench with the ink barely dry on his new, five-year deal.
When Guardiola sent him on in place of Mahrez with 23 minutes left you almost felt sorry for Chelsea.
Aguero had opened the scoring after just 12 minutes. Fearless Foden left all three of Chelsea’s central midfielders trailing in his wake as he drove into the heart of the Chelsea defence. He then slipped in Aguero who wrong-footed Antonio Rudiger before sending the ball into the bottom corner.
For his second Aguero powered the ball past Willy Caballero after Bernardo Silva’s pass had left David Luiz – making his first start since January – chasing shadows.
“Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that!” taunted the Chelsea fans, grasping at the only straws they could find. You’d struggle to find anyone of a Bridge persuasion, however, willing to put money on that.
Sarri might have succeeded in spiriting away the highly-rated Jorginho from under City’s noses last month but on this evidence Chelsea are going to need so much more to get anywhere near Guardiola’s side this season.
Yes, the likes of Thibaut Courtois, Eden Hazard, Ngolo Kante, Olivier Giroud and Gary Cahill were all still absent. But Courtois and Hazard want out while of the other three only Kante is a guaranteed starter.
Seventeen-year-old winger Callum Hudson-Odoi was one of the few Blues players to emerge with any credit from this debacle.
But City were comfortable throughout. They haven’t done too much transfer business but why would they need to with left-back Benjamin Mendy like a new signing after last season’s lengthy injury lay-off? With Brahim Diaz forcing his way into the first-team picture and with the excellent Foden ready to rumble?
The early exit of defender Aymeric Laporte, who picked up a knock, sent out a slight worry, but Vincent Kompany had already climbed off the bench moments earlier to prove his fitness ahead of the new campaign with a crunching, legitimate challenge on fellow substitute Victor Moses.
There would be no reply from Chelsea to the two-goal salvo with which City picked up where they left off last season.
In fact, it would have been even worse had Aguero not missed another two chances and substitute Brahim Diaz and Bernardo Silva not blown opportunities to score in injury time.
As it is, City look in formidable shape going into their opening game of the Premier League next Sunday.
Good luck Arsenal.
