But as City were sent on their way to a shock opening-night defeat by Lyon, the banned City manager must half have been sorely tempted to take a leaf from the book of dirty tricks favoured by his old mucker Jose Mourinho.
Perhaps it was mere coincidence that this defeat arrived with Guardiola banished to the stand – but City lacked their usual fluency in the absence of their touchline hip priest.
Individual blunders from Fabian Delph and Fernandinho were to blame for Lyon’s 2-0 half-time lead, so it would be difficult to point the finger at understudy Mikel Arteta, who was handed full controls of the train-set.
Yet there always something different when a supply teacher is in charge and City’s straight-A students played up something rotten.
Bernardo Silva pulled one goal back midway through the second half but City could not find a leveller.
In a comfortable-looking group containing Hoffenheim and Shakhtar Donetsk, you would still fancy City to emerge into the knock-out stage.
But what ought to have been a straightforward draw has been complicated drastically by this result.
The bookies had decided that after years of under-achievement in the Champions League, this would be City’s year to conquer Europe — making them pre-tournament favourites.
It was quite a leap of faith given that City have reached just one semi-final in seven stabs at the thing and even then they had stank the place out against Real Madrid under Manuel Pellegrini.
Despite his early heroics with Barcelona, Guardiola also has a modest Champions League record of late, in his last seven campaigns he has failed to guide either Barca, Bayern Munich or City to the last four.
While knock-out football can always be haphazard, that record is becoming a blemish on his sainted reputation.
From the thousands of empty seats to the continued booing of the Champions League anthem, acceptable on purely musical grounds at the very least, there is a feeling that City have never clasped this competition to their bosom.
Not that anyone envisaged what was about to unfold on the opening night of this campaign.
Lyon are mid-table in the French top flight and have three Manchester rejects in their starting line-up — Memphis Depay and Rafael, previously of United, and Jason Denayer, once one of those City kids destined for great things who never get a chance.
For a while it looked like being routine — Sterling making a nuisance of himself, David Silva sorcering about, Aymeric Laporte heading against a post.
But in the 27th minute, Lyon shredded the agenda, with significant help from Delph.
Nabil Fekir, who almost joined Liverpool in the summer, delivered a low cross from the left which asked a routine clearance from the England man, in isolation at the far post.
Yet Delph developed a second left foot, misjudged horribly and allowed Maxwel Cornet to sneak up behind and side-foot past Ederson.
You assumed City would get into rapid-response unit mode. Ilkay Gundogan netted but only after the whistle had blown for a marginal offside against Sterling.
Then Delph saw a deflected shot smartly saved by Anthony Lopes and Gabriel Jesus had a decent shout for a penalty when he tumbled over the out-stretched leg of Rafael.
But City’s passing was sloppy, one miscued cross attempt from Kyle Walker, straight into the crowd, summing up their shoddiness.
And two minutes before the break, Fekir introduced a bloody great cat into the pigeon loft — robbing Fernandinho, executing a swift one-two with Memphis, then slotting past Ederson.
Guardiola, up in the second tier of the Colin Bell Stand with his son Marius, remained vaguely deadpan but must have been seething inside.
While results have been fine, there have been signs of City creaking a little at the start of the season.
A draw at newly-promoted Wolves, a narrow home win over Newcastle and despite a 3-0 thumping of Fulham, a performance which had Guardiola raging at their sloppiness.
Yet finding themselves in this predicament was still a shock to their system.
Arteta made no half-time switches but soon sent on Leroy Sane for Gundogan.
Yet after Jesus had a low shot saved, Lyon carved out a glorious chance to sew it up.
Cornet, very much in tune, sliced open the City defence with his pass and Memphis out-paced Walker — no mean feat — only to thump his shot against inside of the post.
It felt like a potential game-changer and, after Sergio Aguero arrived in place of Jesus, City gained a foothold midway through the second half.
The move stemmed from John Stones winning possession with a masterful tackle before Sane was released on the left, beat his man and cut back for Bernardo Silva to steer home a shot.
Aguero then drilled a shot from the edge of the area, forcing Lopes into an instinctive save.
The Argentine, who had been benched after suffering a minor knock on Saturday, came closest to an equaliser with a burst of speed to get him behind the Lyon defence, only for his shot to be saved by Lopes.
But the French club were not exactly put under extreme levels of pressure, City unable to pass their opponents to death as is so often the case.
Without Guardiola at hand, it just wasn’t quite the same.
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