The 2016–17 season is Manchester City's 115th season of competitive football, 88th season in the top division of English football and 20th season in the Premier League since the league was first created with City as one of the original 22 founder-members. They are competing in all three domestic competitions, as well as the UEFA Champions League for the fifth year in a row.

In conjunction with the recruitment of Pep Guardiola, the manager whom City's executives had sought to hire since they joined the club four years hence and the man synonymous with the style of football they wanted the club to espouse, Manchester City announced a series of adjustments to the club's "brand" as of the start of the season.

On 15 October 2015, the club announced that they intended to enter into a consultation with their fans over the designing of a new badge to replace the design that had been brought in 1997 and which had largely been unpopular since. The result of the online-based consultation was a design bearing many of the hallmarks of the crest replaced in 1997, plus some elements of the style established by the other club badges of fellow City Football Group teams Melbourne City FC and New York City FC. While many praised the logo for its simplicity and similarity to the beloved previous design, it was criticised from other corners for its slightly amateurish appearance, its removal of the words "Football Club" and for its failure to more closely replicate the earlier badge.

On 30 June 2016, the day before Guardiola officially started his new role as well as the day on which the new badge was made official, the club unexpectedly announced the renaming of their Twitter accounts and website. Replacing the old "branding" of MCFC (the initials of the club), both social media outlets were rechristened "ManCity". While the move was popular among many, especially the club's more recent foreign fans for whom the styling was already their preferred abbreviation of the club's name, the change provoked another mixed reaction from the Manchester-based core supporter base, with many criticising the decision to use a wording often used by the club's rivals, as well as highlighting the decision to again remove the "Football Club" wording.

On 20 July 2016, Manchester City began their pre-season with a 0–1 defeat against Bayern Munich. Due to weather during the International Champions Cup, the derby against Manchester United was cancelled, and City went on to play Borussia Dortmund in their next cup match, which they would go on to win 6–5 on penalties after drawing 1–1 at the end of regular time. A match was played on 7 August against Arsenal in the 2016 Supermatchen, which ended 3-2 to Arsenal. To replace the game against Manchester United, which was cancelled, City arranged a friendly against St Johnstone, which was played behind closed doors.

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