Pep Guardiola has praised the increasing number of goals scored by Leroy Sané and Raheem Sterling from the wings, with the manager believing their contribution has been crucial to Manchester City’s impressive start to the season.
City welcome Arsenal to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday as Premier League leaders. They are unbeaten in their opening 10 matches and hold a five-point advantage over Manchester United; Arsène Wenger’s side are a further four back.
City already have 49 goals in all competitions, Sterling having scored 10 times in 14 games and Sané eight in 16. Each operates from wide positions, while the centre-forwards Sergio Agüero and Gabriel Jesus have returned nine and eight goals respectively. “All the strikers and wingers have [at least] seven goals, it’s not just Gabriel, it’s not just Sergio and that is important for us,” Guardiola said.
Of Sterling, who is their top scorer, the Catalan added: “It’s true that in front of goal it’s improving. He’s enjoying scoring goals, he’s not scared, he’s not afraid to take a risk. And now he’s seeing how fun, how good it is to score goals. Now he’s more focused on that.
“Mikel Arteta [one of Guardiola’s assistant coaches] is working many hours and days after training specifically about the last action on the pitch – that control in the last moment to make the right movement in the final three or four metres. Raheem has wanted to stay there, to improve, to practise, to shoot at the goalkeepers. It’s part of the mentality he needs. He knows a striker has to score goals and he has to do that if he wants to achieve the next step.
“You won’t survive in the high-level teams in his position if you don’t score goals. Now the confidence is there and the club has new players coming in who can score goals. I think it’s mainly because he’s decided that he wants to score goals, that he can do that and that he is enjoying it.
“His final pass still has to improve – he has to do it better. He has got better but he can still do [even] better. But we can’t forget that he is [only] 22 years old. We demand a lot of these kind of players. But he is curious and he will improve. He’s young and he has time and we are there to help him.”
Guardiola wanted to sign Alexis Sánchez in the summer but would not be drawn regarding a renewed bid in the January transfer window. “He’s an Arsenal player, his manager has to speak about him,” the 46-year-old said. “You know the situation before when the transfer window was open but now it’s closed.
“Let’s not talk about that. He’s an Arsenal player, and we have to analyse what he [can do]. He is such an important player for them, for the talent he has and we have to try to control him. Let’s just focus on that. I have respect for Arsenal and especially for my own players.
“You know my opinion on the players I have, Alexis you know my opinion but he’s an Arsenal player – so it’s not correct to talk about that – especially before we play them.
“Next season we have to shape the team again. Last season there was a lot of changes because the average age was 28 or 29. Now we are a young team. But we’ll buy players, we’ll try to analyse and buy the right players.”