ENGLISH football remains in a state of flux. That a club like Leicester City could overcome numerous rivals with far greater resources to become champions was a reminder that there is no natural order to matters. The oft-repeated, hyperbolic claim that the Barclays Premier League is the best in the world certainly deserves scrutiny but few could argue that right now it is among the most competitive. At the start of this season – with three of the biggest clubs introducing new managers, four if you include Everton – only the foolish or bold would have stuck their neck out to predict with conviction who would win the title. There was no obvious frontrunner.

Already, though, a strong case is being constructed by Manchester City. Like Chelsea and city rivals United, Celtic’s Champions League opponents on Wednesday night opted to begin this campaign with a new man in the dug-out. Unlike their two rivals, however, there has been no need for a bedding-in period. Pep Guardiola, managing in England for the first time, could not have looked more at home if they had made Catalan Manchester’s mother tongue. It has been the perfect start in the literal sense, City winning every competitive match they have played under Guardiola including a 4-0 victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach in their opening Champions League group tie. The portents do not look great for a Celtic side still recovering from the walloping handed out by Barcelona and hoping to get their first points on the board.

Brendan Rodgers, though, can’t help but admire City’s metamorphosis, both this season under Guardiola and in the longer term since being taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008. He could have been a part of it in the early years, approached by City in 2010 to become assistant to Roberto Mancini at the Etihad. Out of work at the time after being sacked by Reading six months earlier, the offer was flattering but ultimately turned down, Rodgers preferring to wait for the chance to become a manager again and ending up at Swansea. It was his first insight into how City, under new Middle Eastern management, went about their business and he was impressed.

"I know the people well there,” he said. “I had met them up at City's ground and then I was invited to Milan to go and speak there with them. I wanted to be a manager of course but at that time there wasn't a lot of possibilities. They thought because I had worked at Chelsea with the big players that I could maybe come in and make an impact at City. But after the chats it quickly went because I was offered the job at Swansea. So I went back to be the No 1 one again and that was the best thing for me. But I got to know about the club then in those discussions and I have got to say I am big admirer of them and their plans. They genuinely have a project there. They want to win but it’s also about developing the community and everything around it.

"I've always seen it as more than [a money-making exercise] because I was shown plans of the training facilities they were going to build and the mini stadiums, how they were going to try and roll it out throughout the world. Of course, with the big clubs it's about winning and to do that they need to spend to get success very quickly. Chelsea did exactly the same in 2003/04. They brought in big players for big money and that gets you winning titles and trophies and once you start to do that it will attract the other players in. City have spent big but I know for sure they will want to bring some players through in their youth system. So, yeah, they have a very strategic way of how they want to do it. It's a club and people I have huge admiration for.”

If an element of stagnation had crept in during the latter stages of Manuel Pellegrini’s tenure as manager, then any cobwebs have been quickly swept away by Guardiola. That fresh mindset introduced by the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich man – who had known several months earlier that he would be taking over– has helped give City an early jump start on their rivals.

“In terms of the pecking order in English football, I think City belong where they are at the minute,” Rodgers said. “They are right at the top. Pep has come in and made a great impact with the team. What they are is a gang of world-class players, with big experience, and he’s formulated them into a structure which is very disciplined but also very hard-working. They have got good players with good intelligence.”

Perhaps Guardiola’s hardest task is to take a large squad replete with internationals and big egos, and keep everyone happy while making sure the machine never loses any momentum.

“You have to create a cause,” explains Rodgers, with perhaps a nod to his time at Liverpool. “They’re not driven by money as they’ll all be multi-millionaires, even the younger ones. So you have to find a way that taps into their emotion because it’s not about whether they can run from there to there in one second, it’s will they run from there to there in one second. At that level can you tap into the emotion? You’re asking them to sacrifice a bit of themselves for the collective and that’s what you’re always trying to formulate. It’s the hardest task.”

Making all the pieces fit into the puzzle, reveals Rodgers, can often be more satisfying than any victory or silverware. “I don’t think there is anything better as a coach or manager than when you see quality players working very hard. One of the biggest accolades I’ve ever taken as a coach or manager came after Liverpool had played Burnley and Sean Dyche came to me after we’d won 2-0, He said he had never seen players at that level work that hard. For me that was big because Burnley work hard. If you look at Man City, how their top players are working and having worked at that level to understand what it takes to get to work to that level, that’s one of the biggest achievements you can get.”

Several players have appeared rejuvenated under Guardiola and Rodgers knows one better than most. It was under his watchful eye that Raheem Sterling emerged as a precocious but talented 17-year-old, blossoming into a first-team regular before being eventually sold to City for the eye-watering sum of £49m. Having appeared to have lost his way for a while, Rodgers is pleased – if slightly alarmed with Wednesday’s game in mind – to see the forward regain his mojo under Guardiola.

"He's back to where he was with me,” said the Celtic manager. “He was a young player who had so much enthusiasm and was so dynamic as a kid. He came into that team when he’d just turned 17 and he was a breath of fresh air. For two years he was up there with the best young players in the world. He was sensational in every aspect.

“He loves football, rarely misses training, wants to be a winner, wants to improve and made a step up as a kid out of London to come up to Liverpool. He gave his all for Liverpool and he got a £49 million move. Then he sort of drifted really and maybe lost his identity of what he was as a player.

“You can see now he's being coached and is playing to what his strengths are. He's dynamic. He's fast. He's aggressive in one versus one. He can play on the sides, he can play as a number 10 but he needs to be clear in the role. But very clearly you see now him in a position and with a focus where the game is simple. He's a top young player.”