Chelsea have embarked on a journey of renewal since being bought by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in May 2022. The sense was of a club in need of refreshment after the end of the Roman Abramovich era and there has been plenty of change across a host of departments, aided by the borrowing of ideas from elsewhere in the game.

Recruiting best in class is the idea, according to sources at Stamford Bridge. It has meant bringing in data and recruitment gurus from Brighton and commercial figures from Manchester United, Tottenham and Milan. As for the playing and coaching side, it has been intriguing to see a heavy intake of figures associated with City Football Group.

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Perhaps this is not the time to be looking to Manchester City for inspiration. Then again, for all their current struggles, there is no disputing that they have set the standard for much of the past decade. Everything was geared for a smooth transition when Pep Guardiola arrived in 2016. City had already embraced the Barcelona blueprint, installing Ferran Soriano as chief executive and Txiki Begiristain as director of football, and that empowered Guardiola to build a juggernaut that looked impossible to halt before this season’s implosion.

No wonder Chelsea have tried to tap into that expertise over the past two and a half years. Some moves have been opportunistic, not least the signing of Cole Palmer from City in August 2023, but a wider strategy is at play. Enzo Maresca, hired as head coach last summer, was once part of Guardiola’s backroom staff. Joe Shields, previously a youth scout at City, knows Palmer well and is playing an important role in Chelsea’s academy restructuring. Glenn van der Kraan was at City before joining as Chelsea’s academy technical director last October.

There are obvious benefits to these links. Breaking into City’s first team is an arduous task. Plenty of youngsters have had to look elsewhere for opportunities. Palmer left in search of regular football and has swiftly become one of the best attackers in the Premier League. The connection was also evident in the signings of Tosin Adarabioyo, Roméo Lavia and Jadon Sancho, even though none were acquired directly from City.

The question is whether City, who again looked tired and stale during their defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in midweek, regret the talent drain before hosting Chelsea on Saturday. Lavia’s route to Stamford Bridge took him via Southampton and, leaving aside the Belgian’s injury woes, the 21-year‑old would probably be starting in midfield now were he still part of Guardiola’s squad. Others to benefit from City’s youth exodus include Aston Villa with Morgan Rogers, who had developed after dropping into the Championship to play for Middlesbrough, and Ipswich with the 21-year-old striker Liam Delap, who is wanted by Chelsea less than a year after being sold by Guardiola.

Even now though, the sense is that City do not regard selling Palmer as a mistake. The view remains that the 22-year-old was simply too much of a maverick to fit into Guardiola’s positional system; that he has thrived through being given more freedom at Chelsea. The only error, it is argued, was not getting Chelsea to pay more than £42.5m. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

The smartest clubs are always plotting. Time will tell if City, who lie two points below fourth-placed Chelsea, have played it smart. What should not be forgotten is that selling academy products helps from a profit and sustainability perspective, as the income counts as pure profit in accountancy terms. It is striking that City have spent big on rejuvenating their squad with the signings of the Egypt forward Omar Marmoush from Eintracht Frankfurt, the Uzbekistan centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens and the Brazilian defender Vitor Reis from Palmeiras.

The process of renewal has gone into overdrive. No doubt City hope that these signings will make people stop questioning the sales of Palmer, Lavia and Delap. Marmoush is 25, Khusanov is 20 and Reis is 19. There is also interest in the 24-year-old Juventus full-back Andrea Cambiaso, the 18-year-old Real Valladolid defender Juma Bah and the 25-year-old Atalanta midfielder Éderson. Hugo Viana, meanwhile, is replacing Begiristain this summer. Guardiola has extended his deal, perhaps indicating that he wants to oversee the kind of rebirth that Sir Alex Ferguson produced so often at Manchester United.

Have we had our fun with City? Is this month’s splurge driven by panic or by considered long-term planning? There has, of course, been an element of scoreboard journalism at play in recent weeks. It was wrong to assume that City were back after edging past Leicester and battering Ipswich and West Ham, who responded by sacking Julen Lopetegui. Their decline was in sharp focus when they lost 2-0 leads during tougher assignments at Paris Saint-Germain and Brentford.

Chelsea will see a chance to lay down a marker at the Etihad Stadium. Maresca, nicknamed “Diet Pep” because of his tactical approach, does not have to complicate things. Chelsea have pace to burn and could destroy City with direct counterattacking.

There could be more short-term pain for Guardiola to absorb, then. In the long run, though, it will be fascinating to see if City’s rebuild works. There is a good reason for Chelsea taking inspiration from them in the first place. They sense their modifications have put them on the path to success. But City, adapting in a bid to survive, are gearing up for a long recovery.