Pep Guardiola came away with a few thoughts from their first dropped points of last season, a 3-3 draw at Newcastle in their third game.
One was that Manchester City hadn't played that badly, and that plenty of teams would find it difficult to come away from St James' Park with three points against a confident side that played with more about them than he was used to seeing from Eddie Howe. This was a point the City boss wasted no opportunity to repeat as the season went on and Newcastle upset expectations to clinch a top-four place.
The biggest and most urgent takeaway from the game though was that Guardiola felt he was short on centre-backs. With Aymeric Laporte ruled out of the opening months, and having already compromised at left-back when the club refused to meet Brighton's asking price for Marc Cucurella, injury to Nathan Ake at Newcastle left City with too few bodies that Guardiola could rely on.
With just 10 days to go in the transfer window, the City hierarchy didn't just accept Guardiola's request but acted fast and bought Manu Akanji from Dortmund. Even if they couldn't know at the time how well that £15m would turn out, City had at least given Guardiola what he felt was needed.
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The importance of Akanji - and the rest of the centre-backs - grew and grew over time to the point where by February there was usually four of them in the starting XI as City went without full-backs. Nathan Ake became an integral part of the team at left-back after shutting down Bukayo Saka, and Akanji proved valuable on either flank as well as in the middle.
As City neared the Treble, and after winning it, Guardiola felt that the biggest difference in his team was the presence of four big defenders. Having previously been susceptible to giving away easy chances on the counter-attack, this new tactic proved the best way to stop that without completely shutting down the attacking intent and build-up from the back.
It is no surprise then to see the club trying to sign another player who can fit perfectly into that system in RB Leipzig's Josko Gvardiol. There is an acceptance that Aymeric Laporte could leave for more regular game time but even if Gvardiol does not increase the numbers available he will make sure they are not reduced.
RB Leipzig are demanding at least £85m for the defender in talks with City, and are strong enough in their position that the number may not be haggled down by much if at all. Whatever the Blues end up paying is likely to make the 22-year-old the most expensive defender in world football.
That is not something to be easily dismissed, and comes on the top of the £225m that City have already ploughed into the position over the last seven years not to mention the sums spent on goalkeepers and full-backs in that period. Hundreds of millions of pounds has gone into finding the right balance to the backline.
At the same time, all of that money could be considered good value when taking into account the performances of those players, and if the defence is the difference between a side that can win it all and one that cannot it makes sense to double down in that area. That perhaps explains between being happy to spend a record sum on a defender and breaking a British record to sign midfielder Declan Rice.
As RB Leipzig's sporting director told German media, it may not be a transfer that is finalised imminently; City are yet to officially bid, albeit it would be a shock if they did not after such advanced talks over the player. By the time the Blues kick off their latest title defence, Guardiola should have exactly what he feels he needs at the back with Gvardiol adding to an already-fearsome backline.
