Except within this: its connection to Englishness was about as shut as subsequent month’s Champions League final here.
With two foreign managers pacing the technical area, 21 foreign players getting a run-out, there were as many Argentines as Englishmen starting.
This was what Gary Neville had been referring to in his speech at the Soccerex conference last week: increasingly we play host to rather than participate in our own game.
Not that the fans of Manchester City will much object to the thin representation of native talent in their side. They would have been too busy enjoying superbly taken goals from Sergio Agüero and Samir Nasri, the calm, unflustered defending of Matija Nastasic, the excellent saves of Costel Pantilimon.
And in the middle of everything City did was Yaya Touré, the Ivorian giant, commanding possession, terrifying the chelsea shirts defence as he galloped forward.