With a smile as wide as his face would allow, Raheem Sterling blew kisses to the gallery.
If one young man symbolises all that is admirable about this Manchester City team, it is Sterling.
Daring but disciplined, talented and tireless, a ravenous hunger to improve, and absolutely loving his work.
That slice-of-melon grin after he struck his 12th Premier League goal of the season - a goal that took a victorious outcome from inevitable to absolute certainty - said it all.
It was a smile that had spread from one Etihad end to the other by the conclusion of yet another swaggering exhibition.
Not their most brilliant, not their most fluent, but still swaggering.
Sergio Aguero was, well, Sergio Aguero, magnificently predatory, deserving of records and headlines.
But Sterling was at the fizzing centre of this routinely accomplished performance.
Only a week ago, Sterling was the victim of a shocking, racial attack just hours ahead of the match against Spurs.
He was brilliant against Tottenham, he was brilliant here. Not much fazes Sterling.
He scored two against Tottenham, he scored one here. It was an important goal, a lot of Sterling’s are.
Not nearly as important as those late winners against Huddersfield and Southampton but important in the sense it eliminated that sand-grain size element of doubt that lingered as City struggled to add to Aguero’s early header.
Actually, sand-grain is over-statement. This was pretty much a formality from start to finish.
This was a Bournemouth team who sat back on a three-goal deficit, for goodness sake.
Yes, it is a thankless task. Yes, the gulf in whatever sense you come up with, is enormous, but one of the finest English coaches did not even go near any rabbit-holding hats.
There were no surprises from Eddie Howe, just an exercise in damage limitation. The damage was always going to arrive.
To their defensive credit, Bournemouth kept the first half pain down to one setback but as soon as Sterling darted in for a lovely second, it was beat-the-traffic time.
Sterling has always been one of many Pep projects, one of the first pieces of work he started.
It began with the phone call before the pair had even hooked up, a reassuring mobile chat during Sterling’s miserable time at Euro 2016.
“As long as you work for me, I’ll fight for you,” Guardiola told his player. “Keep your head up, don’t worry. I know you are a good player and you are a big part of my plans.”
Even Guardiola might not have imagined just how big.
Big in a physical sense, his muscularity no longer making him a pushover target, his fitness facilitating an 80-yard sprinter’s dash in the closing stages of a non-stop contribution.
Big in a footballing sense, Guardiola rightly highlighting Sterling’s heightened footballing intelligence, knowing when to dribble, when to pass, when to have a pop, when to pass.
After Aguero had headed in Bernardo Silva’s cross, Sterling’s nicely-weighted pass gave the Argentine the hat-trick chance.
Augero spurned it, unlike Danilo, who gave another Sterling ball the thanks it deserved.
No wonder Guardiola was so effusive about Sterling.
“With and without the ball, he is so aggressive and so intense, and now he is enjoying scoring goals. In the past it was a bit scary for him.”
In this startling run, nothing is scary for City and for Sterling.
“Our approach to football is a football of joy,” said Ederson, the Glenn Hoddle who plays in goal for City.
No-one is more joyous than Sterling right now.