There were barely any supercars over the far side of Manchester City’s training ground 24 hours out from a night that they hope will define this latest iterance of Pep Guardiola’s tenure.

The manager had given his players the day off. Stay at home, don’t bother coming in. The move, which he has employed before victories over Borussia Dortmund and Fulham this season, would certainly be considered rogue in the traditional coaching manuals.

A decision over cancelling training was taken in light of Saturday night’s disappointing draw with West Ham, UEFA sources saying the call came so late without prior approval that City may now face disciplinary sanctions, with clubs required to run out for the cameras on the eve of Champions League nights.

Misinformed foreign TV crews were left perplexed when arriving to find no footage to shoot, City offering them a meal from the staff canteen as a form of compensation.

But Guardiola’s mind had been clear: in order to overcome the behemoth of Real Madrid, and a daunting three-goal deficit, the players needed time to themselves.

City landed back in town at gone two o’clock on Sunday morning and did a recovery session later that day. Similar can be said of their trip to Madrid.

Those are the physical difficulties of a chastening week yet the mental scars are what worry Guardiola more. A defensive capitulation in the Bernabeu, conceding three in 22 minutes, to undo some fairly good work, is then followed by only leaving London with a point, conceding with West Ham’s only effort on goal. Not on target. On goal. And if Gianluigi Donnarumma had gathered Jarrod Bowen’s fairly standard corner, that figure would have been zero.

So even if the optics of City’s big day off look askew, in a way it is little wonder they were left to kick back as Arsenal approach on the horizon in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, a game that has now taken on significantly more importance in the context of the arc of this new team.

While not seeing each other, Guardiola expected the player WhatsApp group to be abuzz with chat before Real, presumably led by the likes of motivational junkie Ruben Dias.

There are no major surprises awaiting them. City know they must score three. They know it’s likely they must score early. Aside from the potential for Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham to play some part, they know what is coming.

Guardiola wants this team to evoke the memories of the club’s final day in 2022. That’d be the most dramatic title win of all time if it weren’t for Sergio Aguero. Interestingly, he also mentioned the glorious European defeat by Tottenham in 2019, when Raheem Sterling’s apparent winner was adjudged offside in the final seconds and Spurs went through on away goals instead.

‘Aston Villa, last game to win the Premier League,’ Guardiola said. ‘After 70 minutes it is 0-2 and we made three goals in 12 minutes.’ Guardiola’s memory is a little hazy; they scored three in five minutes.

He continued: ‘It has to be a perfect game in many departments to make these kind of things but I always have good memories of defeats. The Tottenham game was painful but it always remains in my pocket.

‘The problem is not about creating chances here. I have had the opinion for many months, we just missed the chances that we created. When you create, you have to create more opportunities and just put the ball in the net.’

They could do with the true Erling Haaland for that, of course. Bernardo Silva inadvertently referenced the striker’s tough spell, four goals in 18 games, when insisting that luck will not come into what happens once Clement Turpin blows the first whistle.

‘We have to believe tomorrow that when Erling has a chance, he will score,’ Silva said. ‘And the ball will not hit the post or the bar. And when they have the chance, we have to believe that our defenders will block and our keeper will save.

‘Tomorrow has to be our day. We need to have a Manchester City night, because we've also had many of those, where many people didn't believe in us and things have gone very well.’

Guardiola has seen enough to have confidence that this collection of players, most of them young and some of them raw, can turn it on for a major one-off performance. That doesn’t count them out. Last week’s match-winner, Federico Valverde, described the Etihad as the toughest place he’d ever played and it will be interesting to see how disenfranchised supporters – disenfranchised by issues with the club, not results – react.

There is a dose of realism to this task too. Silva also made a salient point about how only eight of the squad from Istanbul in 2023 are still at the club. The captain says they struggle consistency, which is correct. And that consistency is not over a run of matches, often it can come in the same game, as has been obvious with the drop offs in second halves this term.

‘The obvious answer is this is a transition,’ Silva said. ‘It is a lot of change. I do believe that having so many different players in such a short time doesn’t help. You talk about the crosses. You need the right movements.

‘That classic one from Kevin (De Bruyne) and Raheem Sterling or Erling or Leroy Sane or Kun (Aguero) a simple tap in, they look easy but you need to make the movement. If no one makes the movement there is no point. It is us needing to know each other to improve.’

Sat at home on Monday, City had plenty of time to visualise those moments as they aim to become only the fourth team in two decades to overturn a three-goal lead. Guardiola will be labelled a genius if it comes off but more strikingly, it might put a different slant on what is to come.