Raheem Sterling offered further evidence of his improvement under Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola by scoring early and late goals in a 3-1 win over West Ham in the English Premier League on Sunday.
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City’s first game after the global break is a local derby at Old Trafford against Manchester United, both teams having won their first three Premier League games of the season.
“Raz (Sterling) has scored two goals, was good but the games before was more brilliant than today (Sunday)”. “They jumped more than us but we played a good game”.
Michail Antonio reduced the deficit in the 58th minute but Sterling scored his second goal in stoppage time from an acute angle.
The goal was magnificently worked, David Silva showing great agility in midfield, slipping the ball through for winger Nolito who picked out Sterling with a magnificent drag back, allowing the England man to finish confidently from 12 yards.
Sterling put City ahead by rounding off a superb move in the seventh minute – a goal that already seemed to have been coming as the hosts started brilliantly – before Fernandinho headed a second.
“Of course we can do better”, said Guardiola.
The only real negative for City was Sergio Aguero’s apparent elbow on Winston Reid in the second half that went unpunished at the time but could lead to retrospective action and a ban ruling the striker out of the derby clash with Manchester United at Old Trafford that comes after the worldwide break. “We are going to play with 11”. He can play right, left, he is so dynamic, so aggressive with the ball and without the ball.
Guardiola added: “When you see how many chances we created, they scored with their first chance. Manchester City bought this player because they believe”.
“I wasn’t happy at halftime”, Bilic said.
“Of course, there is still room for improvement”, Guardiola said, “but we have been playing well and hopefully we can continue doing that”. We wanted to change the shape.
“With so many players we are missing, I have to praise this team. But we are just one and a half, two months here”.
Bilic accepted his side were largely outplayed.
“I did not see the incident”, Guardiola told reporters and neither did West Ham’s manager Slaven Bilic. “The reaction in the second half was better”.
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He said: “You can’t say City didn’t deserve to win, but it was a game of two halves”.
