Manchester City chief Garry Cook has defended their lavish transfer spending in the wake of the 3-0 reverse by Arsenal.
Manager Roberto Mancini spent more than £100million in the summer market as the likes of James Milner, Mario Balotelli, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Jerome Boateng were brought to Eastlands.
The plan is to turn City into Premier League champions and kings of Europe, but questions have been raised regarding a staggering £133million wage bill.
With new UEFA rules regarding Financial Fair Play on the horizon, the plans of billionaire City owner Sheikh Mansour will also come under increasing scrutiny.
However, Cook insists that there is a strategy, telling the Guardian: "Critics only have their own perspective.
"They're not at the football club, they haven't been part of the planning or the long-term financial strategies.
"People think we choose players from the fantasy football league but there was a clear plan for who Roberto wanted to sign.
"One of the perceptions was that we only buy foreign players, then suddenly people saw that six of the England team who finished against Switzerland were City players.
"When people see the good things we are actually doing, they seem to be enlightened."