Manchester City Fan View: This is City's coming of age season

Manchester City dispatched Serie A leaders Napoli 2-1 earlier this week in the third Champions League game of the group stage with a composed and compelling performance.

Three days after the Blues had demolished Stoke City 7-2 at the Etihad – a performance that Pep Guardiola labelled as the best since his arrival at the club – it was the display against the Italian outfit that truly reflected City’s progression as a team under the Spanish coach.

Up against a Napoli team under Maurizio Sarri who, alongside City, have been branded as one of the most lethal attacks in Europe at the moment, Guardiola’s men truly dominated possession and dictated the tempo of the match for the majority of the 90 minutes.

READ MORE: Manchester City hold on for vital win against Napoli

Napoli were previously unbeaten this season, having won all eight of their league fixtures, scoring 26 and conceding just five. There only other dropped points this season came away to Shakhtar Donetsk in their opening Champions League group stage game.

Before the game, Guardiola heaped the praise onto both Napoli as a collective and onto coach Sarri, who has transformed the Naples club in a way not so dissimilar from Guardiola’s developments at City. Both clubs like to maintain possession, adopt a high press, play attacking football and, perhaps most distinctively, play the ball out from the back.

In City’s first few attempts to qualify for the knockout stages in the Champions League, they stumbled and showed a lack of experience. The performance against Napoli, whilst not on the same dominating level as those against Feyenoord and Shakhtar, illustrated the overall maturity and experience this current City squad now possesses.

With City now having triumphed over their last 10 consecutive opponents, and having only failed to win once due to a 1-1 draw with Everton, many are beginning to draw hypothetical parallels to last season, whereby City started the season impressively and then endured rough patches of form.

READ MORE: Dries Mertens, Napoli’s street dog striker, sets sights on Man City

However, the players will be keen to avoid a similar fate this term, looking to learn from their troubles last year and identify potential improvements. That his shown so far; despite enjoying a similar start to the 2016/17 campaign in terms of points accumulated, the nature of the performances has stepped up yet another level.

With the growing maturity of young players such as Gabriel Jesus, John Stones, Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling, as well as the experience provided by veterans like Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Fernandinho, City have the recipe to be a very powerful force – a force to be reckoned with.