I prefer it when our fans are not too confident, as nothing in football is guaranteed.
But it would be mad to underestimate City: the atmosphere will help us perform at our best, and a team having Pep as the manager and players like Rodri, KDB, Foden, Bernardo and Haaland is a frightening prospect.
Your comparison with last season is a bit misleading. The combo of Partey and Xhaka is marginally worse than any combo of Rice and some current player, if at all. Rice is a very good player but a bit overrated due to English bias. Passing wise he isn't outstanding. Havertz can't press like Jesus and isn't the greatest goalscorer either. Saliba for Holding is the big difference, but we have enough tools to hurt them even with Saliba in the team.