City prove old adage correct as they reverse form and show class at Wembley

Form is temporary and you know the rest. The knocks came rat-a-tat, the class remained.

Pep Guardiola had been rumbled, apparently, this delicate Manchester City side sussed, reports of their greatness exaggerated.

That might still be the case but the debate should be a footnote to the headline story.

And that is that City are going to win the Premier League title playing a consistently bewitching brand of football.

They were certainly nowhere near their most spectacularly fluent here but, at times, still made Spurs look more ordinary than they were.

In English football’s grandest arena, the champions-elect found a practical edge to go with the daring that had not deserted them, even in those three defeats.

Not only that, they showed they had a bit of character.

As Christian Eriksen scurried to retrieve his fortunate goal from Ederson’s net just before half-time, Guardiola screwed the cap back on his water bottle and took dead aim at the deck.

He knew the ramifications, knew the psychological and physical test his Manchester City side would face for the remainder of the game.

Freshly familiar with surrendering a two-goal lead, the memory of their collapse against Manchester United painfully vivid, Guardiola knew this was a test of their bottle.

They passed it.

Maybe for once in their beautiful Premier League season, the performance did not matter to Pep.

Maybe what mattered was how they resisted a decent Spurs fightback, how they dug in, how they showed some mettle, demonstrated they have character to go with quality.

Maybe what mattered was getting a break here and there, as they did when Jonathan Moss decided Hugo Lloris had clattered Raheem Sterling just inside, rather than outside, the area.

Maybe what mattered was sending on a defender for an attacking player, Nicolas Otamendi for Leroy Sane, and seeing it pay off.

Maybe what mattered was persistence, the sort shown by Raheem Sterling whose second half goal sealed matters and whose finishing takes Guardiola to new levels of frustration with every passing game.

Maybe what mattered was showing they could come through adversity and still, in swathes of the game, play with panache.

The title really is a formality now and it will be wonderfully won – a dazzling, opening half-hour testament to that.

It is not as though they had been particularly poor during the three-game implosion.

They did not have the rub of the officiating green in the games against Liverpool and Manchester United and the fine margins of finishing rarely favoured them.

Despite the three goals – the clinical finish from Gabriel Jesus, Ilkay Gundogan’s penalty and, finally, Sterling’s clincher – they were not overly clinical here, either.

If Sterling dares to count up his shots-to-goals ratio over the last two weekend, it might not make pleasant reading.

Yet he had a fine game, just like he did when he wasted chance after chance against United.

Seems bizarre to say but that is the case.

And he has got 17 goals in the Premier League this season, a tally he would probably have taken at the start of the season.

There is still an awful lot of improvement in Sterling, that is the frightening thing.

And there is an awful lot of improvement in the Champions-elect.

They will recruit in the summer for sure. The defeats by Liverpool, in particular, will have convinced Guardiola of the need.

For now, though, a title will be wrapped up pretty soon and the talk of Pep being rumbled will quieten.

And for now, Guardiola can reflect on what will probably go down as one of his most satisfying days in charge at City.

A day when they showed bottle to go with the brilliance.