It is a standard plot in drama. The fall and rise provides a tale of renewal and renaissance.
Manchester City’s season is only three games old but already contains many a story of resurgent players. Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany, whose struggles last season occurred to a backdrop of unflattering headlines, initially captured the attention with their improved form.
Yet as Manuel Pellegrini’s team maintained their perfect start, others’ redemption songs grew in volume.
In the fallout of underachievement last season, two names figured prominently in the speculative lists of candidates for a summer clear-out: those of Aleksandar Kolarov and Samir Nasri.
Those same names were found on the score sheet at Goodison Park, moody men in sky blue reinvented as motivated scorers.
Neither has been a paragon of consistency in his City career and each requires careful man-management, but each, at his best, is a high-class performer.
Everton can testify to that.
Kolarov has been a magnificent, marauding presence this season. A tormentor of Chelsea turned scourge of Everton.
His goal was typical Kolarov, attempting a shot that others would have considered improbable and striking it with sufficient power that when a goalkeeper erred, as an out-of-position Tim Howard did, he could capitalise.
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The left-back may owe his place to the ankle injury Gael Clichy suffered before the campaign started. Nasri is yet to reclaim his although, on this evidence, Jesus Navas should be increasingly worried by the challenge the Frenchman poses.
Each reflects City’s strength in depth, which is all the greater now they have a £31.5 million (Dh181.6m) centre-back, Nicolas Otamendi, who may struggle to displace an increasingly impenetrable pair of Vincent Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala.
They displayed a physical dominance. Nasri had a decisive deftness, playing a trademark City one-two with Yaya Toure before flicking a shot over Howard.
City’s ninth successive league win was secured, a 103-year-old club record equalled and a five-point advantage over Chelsea maintained.
Last week’s demolition of the reigning champions remains the season’s landmark result, but a trip to Goodison Park represented a stiffer test of their credentials.
City could savour a new-found solidity that was reflected in a third successive clean sheet. They could also enjoy a newcomer’s telling display.
While Otamendi awaits international clearance and talk of a move for Wolfsburg Kevin de Bruyne persists, City’s record signing started and starred.
Raheem Sterling was making his first return to Merseyside since his £49m move from Liverpool and was jeered, inevitably, by a section of the Everton support.
He is acquiring new friends, however, and establishing an increasingly influential alliance with Kolarov.
The Englishman cuts in while the Serb overlaps, and their combination yielded the breakthrough.
It was Sterling’s first assist in 13 games; he is yet to convert potential into productivity, but he is getting there.
After an earlier, defence-splitting pass, David Silva struck the post.
The Spaniard represents the style, but others are offering the steel.
Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala were a mismatched duo last season. Now, as competition for their places has emerged, they have started to look a partnership.
They have similar strengths, of pace and height. Kompany’s size and speed of thought proved crucial when he materialised on his own line to clear Gareth Barry’s goal-bound header.
Ten minutes later, Nasri scored the decisive second goal. They have struck eight times, and conceded none.
It amounts to an emphatic start, because if individuals have a point to prove, so does a team.
City were widely criticised last season, deemed lacking in focus and effort as well as results. Now there is evidence of purpose and resilience.
They fell from grace in a sorry spring.
They have risen again in ominous fashion.
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