Manchester City continued their flawless start under Pep Guardiola as a ruthless 4-0 victory over Bournemouth gave them an eighth successive win and a piece of club history.
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“Kevin is outstanding player”, he said.
“He makes everything. Without the ball he’s the first fighter, and with the ball it’s clear he sees absolutely everything”.
“Every time, he makes the right decision”. That’s why he is a player at another level. We are lucky to have him. They have to know if they don’t play good that there’s another one beside me and the next time he is going to play. But, according to Guardiola, the 25-year-old is fiercely ambitious, and keen to win the major individual prizes that have been the preserve of Argentine forward Messi and Real Madrid’s Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo since 2008. “Maybe I am wrong but I think he would like to win these individual prizes”.
Apart from Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Guardiola believes De Bruyne deserves to be rated as among the world’s best players. “But the table beside, Kevin can sit there”.
The Algeria striker scored twice as Leicester eased past Burnley with a second straight 3-0 win, having beaten Club Brugge by that score in the Champions League on Wednesday.
“Numbers are numbers. One record will be for another person to beat”, said Guardiola.
“Of course the most important things in our game were much better than in the Sunderland game, but that is what we have to do”. We have to use the players every few days. We had for the weather one more day regeneration, now we have one less but it is what it is. Our plan wasn’t to sit as deep in the first half but we ended up getting trapped.
United play away at Watford at noon on Sunday, where a win will move them to within three points of City. “We are disappointed with our overall performance”. I feel we can do better than that. We need him. There’s a lot of games to come.
Guardiola has rejected those claims, however, and insists his sole focus is on making the City fans happy with the style of play his team are playing.
Eddie Howe has a full fit squad to select his starting lineup from as Jack Wilshere is expected to start from the bench with the manager reluctant to rush the Arsenal loanee into the starting lineup.
City were a joy to watch – except for Bournemouth, whose only threats came when the pace of Joshua King exposed Nicolas Otamendi and substitute Callum Wilson hit the bar late on – and three minutes after the break it was 3-0 as Iheanacho returned the favour for Sterling to finish from close range.
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“It was hard for Jack”. He played good but we can not forget he comes from a long-term injury.
