Manchester City's 3-2 win over RB Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena was another chaotic night in Enzo Maresca's early reign.
Control abandoned in Leipzig
For a decade under Pep Guardiola, City's default setting was control. Matches were managed, tempos dictated, risk minimised. Maresca's side appear to have torn up that particular manual.
They led 1-0 at half-time after Castello Lukeba turned a Nico O'Reilly cross into his own net in the 37th minute. It was the kind of scrappy opener that Guardiola's teams used to build on with ruthless efficiency.
Not this lot. Ridle Baku levelled in the 49th minute, beating Gianluigi Donnarumma at his near post from a tight angle. City restored their lead nine minutes later when Enzo Fernandez headed home an Iliman Ndiaye cross, only for Antonio Nusa to equalise three minutes after that.
Erling Haaland slid in an Elliot Anderson ball at the back post in the 78th minute to seal it. A 3-2 win, but not one that will feature in any coaching manuals on game management.
A pattern emerging
This was not an isolated case. City's 5-3 win over Sunderland and 3-2 win over Ipswich Town were both chaotic matches, and the 4-2 defeat to PSG was hardly a tight, controlled affair either.
Martin Demichelis had clearly instructed his Leipzig side to take the game to the visitors, and they did so with some success. Maresca's City, for their part, seem happy to trade punches rather than dictate terms.
It is early days under the new manager, and a win is a win. But the pattern is becoming hard to ignore: City are becoming box-office, and not always in a way that suggests a title challenge built on solid foundations.
Chaos, it turns out, can be entertaining. It can also be exhausting.