Raiders of the lost art Guardiola and City have unearthed a long-lost treasure with dribbling Doku

The roar begins before the ball has even reached his feet. A lunchtime crowd at the Etihad Stadium, breath visible on the air, cooked breakfasts still sitting heavy in the stomach

- Jonathan Liew

And this is a crowd accustomed to excellence, to the known known, a crowd who in their post-treble glow do not so much anticipate as expect. Still, as the ball rolls towards him, they rise. Football is a cage in search of a bird. And here, that bird is named Jérémy Doku.

Something interesting has been happening at Manchester City this season. The melodies and harmonies have remained largely the same, but the backing track is different. Doku's arrival from Rennes in the summer scarcely registered at the time, and indeed the rumour is that he was not a Pep Guardiola signing at all but a transfer driven by the director of football, Txiki Begiristain. Doku may not be the player Guardiola craved, but perhaps Begiristain could see that he was the player City needed. The scrawl of graffiti on the palace walls. The little spark of invention that renders the machine flesh. The pure joy of the dribble.

Doku completed 11 dribbles against Liverpool on Saturday, the most in a Premier League game for two years. This season he averages a league-high six dribbles per game, almost twice as many as Eberechi Eze in second place. It would be ridiculous to describe something as natural and elemental and ubiquitous as dribbling as a lost skill. But as a trendsetter and tastemaker, the emergence of Doku as a leading player in City's title defence holds a curious significance.