Pep Guardiola’s arrived to end the debate: can he do it on a cold, rainy night at Stoke?

Sometimes even the greats feel they have a point to prove. Pep Guardiola has won two Champions Leagues, six league titles and 22 trophies. He has collected plaudits aplenty, a band of disciples who regard him as the greatest ever and a status as the manager every club wants to appoint. And yet he has been dogged by a question: so can you do it on a cold, rainy night at Stoke?

“I say, why not come and play good when it is freezing and windy,” said Manchester City’s new manager. “That is a target for me.” It seems an unlikely aim for the great stylist, to bring tiki-taka – though he dislikes the phrase – to the most inclement of surroundings and the most intimidating of environments. Stoke – at least the stereotype of Stoke, in Tony Pulis’ days – represented the antithesis of Guardiola’s Barcelona team. Without mentioning the men from the Potteries in mind, he seemed to have Stoke in mind.

The Premier League can take the most cosmopolitan of arrivals and ground them in its peculiarly insular language quickly. A week into his time at the Etihad Stadium, Guardiola was already talking about “Big Sam”; perhaps Allardyce’s fame precedes him. Perhaps Guardiola is being anglicised already. If not, his first opponent could provide a culture shock.

He portrayed himself as the humble newcomer to a very different league, presenting himself as a malleable figure, rather than an inflexible ideologue. “There are two or three things I will not change,” he said. The rest of his philosophy will be customised to suit his new charges and the English league.

He insisted he will learn from Brian Kidd, that long-serving assistant to a variety of managers on either side of Manchester, rather than vice-versa. “Kidd knows the club perfectly,” Guardiola said. “He knows the Premier League. He has been at City and United.”

Mikel Arteta, a novice on the coaching staff, will be invaluable for his experience of the festive fixture programme, he said. “He has got 12 or 13 years between Scotland and here,” he noted. “He knows what Boxing Day is all about.”

His was a winning modesty. Guardiola insisted he came not to preach, but to learn. He showed a professional courtesy, rather than the rock-star glamour City coveted. He traded the T-shirt-and-blazer combination he wore at Sunday’s more informal unveiling to fans for a smart suit, bearing the look of a Catalan lawyer.

He downplayed much. He refuted the suggestion that City, lacking the storied past of Barcelona or Bayern Munich and in a more competitive league, represented his toughest task to date. “Maybe when I took over the second team from Barcelona it was harder because if I failed in that moment my career would be finished,” he rationalised.

And yet his inheritance is not as abundant. In 2008, as now, he took over a team with a 21-year-old winger tipped for greatness since his teenage years. Comparisons between Lionel Messi and Raheem Sterling may end there. “In Barcelona I had everything, the best player ever,” reflected Guardiola.

Sterling’s troubled Euro 2016 suggested he is a prodigy who has lost his way. Intriguingly, Guardiola felt the £49 million fee City spent has been a hindrance. “He has a little problem with the money they paid and that is in the mind of the people,” he said. “I am looking forward to working with him and showing him how good a player he is.”

He hinted at a reason why his hopes of an English core to the City side may not be realised. “In Barcelona the basis was Catalan players, in Bayern the basis was German and I would like to work with English players here,” he said. “But they are so expensive.”

Most City players tend to be. More expensive additions are on the cards - “we are going to try and move a little bit the squad,” Guardiola said – but this was an exercise in diplomacy. City’s alpha males were treated with respect, perhaps even deference.

His injury-hit captain? “My dream for Vincent Kompany is to be fit. He is a magnificent centre-back.”

The ageing, increasingly moody midfielder he sold at Barcelona? “I know Yaya [Toure] from a long time. He did very, very well in Barcelona and here as well. He's a huge, huge talent.”

Toure is the only first-team player accustomed to his methods. Javier Mascherano once said it took him a year to adapt. Guardiola refuted that, contradicting an old charge in a blizzard of praise. “Javier Mascherano is so humble. That is not true. He achieved what we wanted immediately. Javier is one of the most intelligent players I've ever seen in my career.”

His brand of football, he insisted, is not too complex to grasp. "What we want is so simple: when the opponent has the ball, take it back as quick as possible,” he explained. “When we have the ball, try to move as quick possible, to create as much chances as possible. That's all. And good team spirit.”

It was a formula that brought a treble in his first year at Barcelona. Then he had previewed the campaign by telling the fans to strap themselves in for the ride. He adapted that lesson for the English, producing a rare soundbite on an afternoon of sober rhetoric. “Fasten your seatbelt,” he advised. “For the other side of the car.”