Manchester City fired a warning to the rest of the Premier League with a ruthless demolition job on Watford.
You can be brave and attack Pep Guardiola's wonderful side. If you do it right, then you might just get something. Get it wrong, though, and there's a danger you will be annihilated.
Essentially, if you come at the Premier League kings, you best not miss.
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Norwich earned a shock win over City a week ago thanks to their workrate, organisation, boldness in possession, clinical finishing and a little bit of luck.
Basically, everything that Watford were lacking at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
It finished 8-0 but could have been so much worse.
Even without a rested Raheem Sterling remaining on the bench throughout, City teased and tormented their visitors from every position on the pitch.
Watford's only saving grace was that they somehow managed to avoid being on the wrong side of a Premier League record scoreline – Manchester United's 9-0 win over Ipswich remains safe... for now.
But that was down to City's wastefulness in front of goal rather than the visitors' ability to stop them.
Sergio Aguero leads the Premier League goalscoring charts but had he been at his lethal best, he would have scored at least five times.
He missed three good chances and hit the post with another, meaning a seventh-minute penalty was all he had to show for his efforts.
Still, his emphatic spot-kick saw him become the first player in Premier League history to score in the opening six matches of a season.
There was also a little piece of history for City, who went 5-0 up in just 18 minutes – also a record.
It took just 52 seconds for Kevin De Bruyne to get his trademark assist, the Belgian producing a cross of such quality and accuracy that it would have been almost impossible for David Silva to miss.
Five minutes later, the in-form Riyad Mahrez nipped around Watford's defence to draw an unnecessary challenge from Ben Foster, leaving Aguero to convert the resulting penalty.
A deflected Mahrez free-kick followed before close-range finishes from Bernardo Silva and Nicolas Otamendi heaped more misery on Watford.
Hornets debutant Dimitri Foulquier was hauled off after 33 minutes as Quique Sanchez Flores tried in vain to try stem the goals but City were straight back at it after the break.
Bernardo completed his hat-trick by the hour mark before De Bruyne smashed in the goal of the day for City's eighth.
He should have added a record-equalling ninth himself but somehow shot wide after brilliantly working an opportunity for himself in the area.
There were nothing but positives for Guardiola to take out of the game, though, particularly from a squad perspective.
There was a first start in the Premier League this season for Benjamin Mendy and he could hardly have wished for an easier reintroduction to the side.
The Frenchman has been missed and not just because of his entertaining social media activity. He gives City an extra dimension to his attacks with his ability to get forward and fire over dangerous crosses.
The club want to be careful with his comeback after painful setbacks in the past and Guardiola had the luxury of taking him off after 45 minutes to give summer signing Angelino his first minutes on the pitch.
Rookie centre-back Eric Garcia followed but, despite the changes, City maintained their threat as De Bruyne and Aguero kept pushing for more goals until the very last minute.
How Watford must hate facing this insatiable City side. The FA Cup final in May was their greatest occasion in 35 years and it ended in heartbreak and humiliation, after a record-equalling 6-0 defeat.
The defeat at the Etihad was their 12th consecutive loss against City. The good news at least is they won't meet City again in the league until next May.
Poor as Watford were, though, there is not a side in the Premier League who will want to fact the champions in this form.
A message has been sent, to leaders Liverpool, and the rest of the pretenders to City's throne.
