Kelechi Iheanacho made Manchester City’s squad for Sunday’s contest against West Ham United, but was an unused substitute as his side cruised to the English Premier League summit.
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The defeat ended a hard few days for West Ham manager Slaven Bilic, whose injury-hit team lost to Romanian side Astra Giurgiu on Thursday to miss out on Europa League qualification.
Sterling thrilled at times even if City made hard work of a win which takes them above Manchester United and Chelsea as normal service has already resumed in this season’s familiar looking title race.
Sterling’s first after seven minutes and another from Fernandinho soon after appeared to put a dominant City on course for a huge victory at the Etihad Stadium.
“Reborn? I keep seeing that word”, Sterling told Sky Sports.
As for Aguero’s clash with Reid, Bilic added: “I did not see the Sergio Aguero incident”.
City could easily have scored a third goal before Michail Antonio’s header in the 57th minute gave West Ham an unexpected lifeline.
Guardiola also allayed fears of an injury to centre-back John Stones, who came off in the second half with an injury.
“One thing we can not lose is our spirit”. I think we’re improving every day and that’s good for the team.
“We try to help him to say, ‘If you stay in that position, you receive the ball quicker, ‘” Guardiola said. “We know it’s a hard place to go but now we’re thinking about our national teams, which come before, and then we’ll think about and work towards the derby”.
The Football Association are likely to look at retrospective punishment should Marriner claim he did not see the incident, the Daily Mail reported.
Bilic said: “I didn’t see it at all”. I don’t know what it was about really, but I know he can’t really talk in there [dressing room].
“We wanted to change the shape. He said it was because he had got something in the throat”.
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– Raheem Sterling has had a hand in five goals in four appearances under Guardiola (2 goals, 3 assists); as many has he produced in his last 22 matches under Manuel Pellegrini.
