For heaven’s sake, Jérémy. You’re not supposed to actually enjoy these games. Except, it seems sometimes you can, even at this rarefied level. Perhaps the most striking part of Jérémy Doku’s thrilling performance here was its playfulness, the sense of fun, the way he was into it from the first moment, basically dancing out there.

Doku has the nickname The Count, a reference to the Star Wars Sith Lord Count Dooku. His performance against Liverpool was more like watching the young Yoda scything his way around one of those mass lightsaber massacres, whirling and gliding, aware of space, wind, the crumpling of a blade of grass behind him.

Doku has one particular move, The Wand. Essentially he waves his foot over the ball and runs off the other way. Sounds easy. You try doing it. Here he spent his entire 74 minutes on the pitch making elite footballers vanish.

He did it to Mo Salah an hour into a gruelling game on a sodden pitch. A bit later he was double-teamed by Ryan Gravenberch and Conor Bradley, slowed to a walk, stopped, then out came the wand. Expelliarmus! They both vanished, Doku easing through the space to batter a shot at goal.

He was always going to score. When he did it was in part a product of the mental pain inflicted on the Liverpool defence in the preceding 62 minutes. Ibrahima Konaté was wary of getting too close. From there Doku didn’t need to use his full range, just jinked to his right and walloped a thrilling shot into the far corner, a hard, flat, howling thing, basically unsaveable.

Doku came off with the game done at 3-0, having completed seven dribbles, at a point where nobody else on the pitch had got past one. He has always had extraordinary gifts, amazing numbers on the physical tests, the standing jump, the sideways snap. In full flow here it looked like trying to play against a mobile forcefield, such is his control, the speed of his feet, the power of his thighs and shoulders.

This is Doku’s third season in Manchester. He’s still only 23. Pep Guardiola was careful afterwards not to overpraise him, suggesting he probably won’t ever be a truly prolific goalscorer. But it was a performance that might just make him into something else.

It was too much for Liverpool in any case. This may or may not be the beginning of City’s title charge. But it is surely the end of Liverpool’s defence. The champions have lost five league games with 27 still to play. Title winners generally lose between three and six. Something dramatic would have to happen to this team. But it doesn’t look like it will.

Jérémy Doku has always had extraordinary gifts, such as his control and the speed of his feet. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

True, Liverpool had a goal disallowed for a very silly notion of offside. They had some good spells. Florian Wirtz played well. But if Arne Slot is struggling to find effective patterns, the poverty of his team only served to demonstrate how peerlessly good Guardiola is at this; just as Doku’s development is a perfect example of what Guardiola loves, that wild hunger for building teams and working at players.

Manchester had been agreeable, damp and mild at kick-off, with moody skies and squalls of drizzle, the most Sunday of all November Sundays. What stood out early on was City’s fluidity. Doku roamed, as did Rayan Cherki and Bernardo Silva. Konaté had one of those days where he seems to be playing in roller skates. But he suffered also from the brittleness of Liverpool’s midfield.

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Before kick-off City had screened a gushing coronational video in honour of Pep’s 1,000th game as a manager. The opening goal was this team’s own tribute, like a flick back through ages. It began deep on the left, Doku and Silva zipping the ball forward, one of those moments where a team just seems to be speaking to itself.

From there it became like a version of Carlos Alberto’s back-to-front goal for Brazil against Italy in 1970, but with a modern mash-up of controlled possession chucked into the mix as City showcased some classic Pep style, like one of those moments at an Olympics opening ceremony where suddenly everyone’s morris dancing or Tim Berners-Lee is inventing the internet.

From there it was current Pep. Matheus Nunes swung in a cross for Erling Haaland to score with a header that was either a bit fortunate in its slight deflection off Konaté, or a case of the more I lurk in space waiting to head the ball in, the luckier I get.

Either side of the goal City were far the better team, and in an interesting way. Guardiola’s triple No 10 system looks full of promise. Seven of the starting outfield 10 were 23 or under. Nico González had another fine game. Phil Foden looks bright and perky. Even his hair looks different, looser and more expressive, the hair of a well-groomed pirate.

And City have now won five out of their past six in the league. They must be serious title challengers, maybe even favourites given they have done this many times before, that there are no bars to be raised or ghosts to be slain. Guardiola can surely feel it, even if he won’t say. And Arsenal will too from here.