Manchester City sent out a warning to the rest of the teams at the Club World Cup with a 5-2 hammering of Juventus in their final group stage game.
After a frustrating trophyless season last term, City delivered a performance that indicated they have a real chance of battling for the main prize in New Jersey on July 13.
City took the lead early through Jeremy Doku, who finished a precise move set up by a superb through pass from new signing Rayan Ait-Nouri.
Juventus responded quickly, capitalising on a mistake from City goalkeeper Ederson, whose poor clearance allowed Teun Koopmeiners to pounce.
City regained the lead in the 26th minute when Matheus Nunes delivered a low cross into the box from the right. Juventus defender Pierre Kalulu deflected the ball into his own net past a helpless Michele Di Gregorio.
The Premier League side added another with a third goal from Erling Haaland. After a quick break, Nunes again provided the assist, threading a pass into Haaland’s path for the Norwegian forward to bundle the ball over the line from close range. It was his 300th career goal.
Phil Foden put the result beyond doubt in the 69th minute, poking the ball home after Savinho tapped Haaland's low cross into his path.
Savinho rubbed salt in Juve's wounds when the ball fell to him at the edge of the box and he crashed a thunderous effort in off the crossbar.
"We've always been potential winners in all competitions that we play. Obviously it's just one game, but we're happy that the performance was the way it was," captain Bernardo Silva said.
"It shows that we're improving, we're coming back to the levels and to the standards that we got people used to at this club.
"That's good. That's a good sign for next season. Not only for this competition, but we want to build to the whole season, to the whole year. What happened last year was quite disappointing for all of us. We want to change, we want to be better. Today was a great performance and it shows that we can do it again," he said.
New arrivals Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki in midfield and Ait-Nouri at left-back showed against Juve that they have the profiles to fit into the City mould immediately.
Silva, the 30-year-old Portuguese midfielder was recently named the club's new skipper, charged with the job of integrating an exciting crop of new players into Guardiola's first team.
"It's probably one of the biggest honours of my career. I'm going to start my ninth season at the club. We went through a lot of fantastic moments and some disappointments as well. All that experience, I will try to pass it to the younger guys," he said.
"It's about each one of us being our own leader and helping the guy next to us in the dressing room. The same way that we helped the other guys, I'm counting on Ruben (Dias), on Rodri, on Erling (Haaland), on all the guys to help me. Because I will need that help to help the team achieve a lot of things and hopefully win titles," he said.
