Manchester City began their hunt to regain their Premier League crown in impressive fashion, defeating a valiant Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1 at Molineux.
The Blues flew out the blocks, taking a comfortable 2-0 lead into the break with a penalty from Kevin De Bruyne and a strike from Phil Foden.
There were however some second half nerves, after Raul Jimenez pulled one back with just 10 minutes left, but Gabriel Jesus eventually put the win beyond doubt netting a third for his side in the final minute of added time.
After the game Pep Guardiola gave his thoughts on the opening day win, and here are his key points.
Pep Pleased Defensively
With Aymeric Laporte and Eric Garcia both ruled out John Stones and new man, Nathan Ake were the men to step in as City's centre-back pair, and despite plenty of questions being asked about City's defensive frailty before the game, Guardiola was pleased with the Stones/Ake pairing:
"All the time was really good especially in the first half, and John [Stones] and Ake they were so good too."
De Bruyne Picks up Where he Left Off
Once again Kevin De Bruyne proved to be the shining light for City and Guardiola expressed his acknowledgement for the Premier League Player of the Year's work rate despite the season just kicking off:
"Not even just today, since we came back from the national teams every training session I feel his incredible commitment and right now he is an incredibly important player for us. Always, he was an important player but in the current situation right now he is important, he played really well."
Guardiola a Happy Man
During his post-match press conference the City boss' happiness was questioned after his team's win as he looked to be showing little emotion, but the Spaniard was quick to explain he is a very happy man:
"I am delighted and happy, I do not have a nice smile that is all. I am incredibly happy, but at the same time it is just the reality right now and we have to be calm.
Injury Update
With Aymeric Laporte, Eric Garcia, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Joao Cancelo, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Sergio Aguero all sidelined this evening Guardiola gave an update on the injury list:
"Most of them it will be after the Leeds game and the international break, then I think they will be ready. Maybe Laporte is not injured it was because just one training session in two months, and Eric Garcia has 16 stiches [in his head] so that is why he could not be here, but for the rest I think after the international break."
Fixture Pile up Looms
With City now set to play their next outing on Thursday in the Carabao Cup against Bournemouth, and then again on Saturday in the Premier League against Leicester City, Guardiola expressed his concern on the fixture pile up:
"We will play mostly players from the academy [in the Carabao Cup on Thursday]. We have won the Carabao Cup three times in a row and we would like to continue but we don't have the players in this period to play every three days."