Pep Guardiola praised Gabriel Jesus’ performance in Manchester City’s 5-0 win over Norwich City and said he felt lucky to be able to work with such a selfless player as the Brazilian.
Jesus was introduced to City’s starting lineup as one of five changes from last weekend’s loss to Tottenham as City produced a five-star performance against Norwich.
The Brazil international was lined up to the right of a top trio that also contained Ferran Torres and Jack Grealish in Saturday’s Premier League clash at the Etihad Stadium.
Although Jesus did not find the net, he played three key passes, one high, including assists for Jack Grealish and Raheem Sterling.
He also sent the ball which led Grant Hanley and Tim Krul to inadvertently combine for City’s opener and was highly praised by Guardiola after the impressive display.
“If a person deserves the respect and the man of the match awards, it’s him. His mom and dad must be so proud to have someone like him,” Guardiola told BBC Sport.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, the Catalan coach added: “He is a player who likes to be wider than central position.
“One of the reasons I’m a manager is when you can work with people and humans like Gabriel. He never complains, he plays five minutes, he plays the best five minutes he can.
“He’s happy left, right or center and today the connection with Kyle [Walker] was exceptional. I’m happy with his performance – he’s been involved in three of our goals and is an incredibly important player for us.
“He had an outstanding performance today, and I repeat, if he plays three minutes, he plays the best three minutes for the club and everyone. The more you have in that position, the better off we are. someone plays like that, he deserves to play.
“He’s so young, congratulations because he deserves the best in life. He’s so generous and like I say, I’m incredibly satisfied for him.”
Jesus played an important role with the Brazil national team, which he helped reach the Copa America final last month.
The 24-year-old was given an extended break after his Copa exploits but was quick to find his rhythm in his first start of the season, after being presented as a second-half substitute against Tottenham last week.
“I play more on the right for the national team,” Jesus told BBC Sport. “We have a lot of good wingers here and a very good team overall.
“I feel good and I regain my confidence and my energy. I like to play all the time, wherever the manager tries to play me, I always try to do my best.
“I was the last to come back after the holidays. I didn’t lose too much power. I’m lucky I can come back, train for two days or a week and get back into shape.”
Grealish, Aymeric Laporte, Sterling and Riyad Mahrez were all on track for City in their routine victory after Krul opened the scoring with an own opening goal.
Since Guardiola arrived in the Premier League at the start of the 2016-17 season, City are now responsible for 23 of the 49 games won by a five-goal margin (47 percent).
It was a timely victory for City, ending a three-game losing streak in competitive games without scoring since last season.
“This result is the consequence of the number of good things we have done,” said Guardiola.
“We are still not at the top, there is still a lot to do. We practiced, we refreshed ourselves and I’m happy with these first points … I hope they won’t be the last!
Grealish’s goal was his first for City since joining a record British £ 100million contract with Aston Villa this month in what was his home debut and third appearance overall.
The England international didn’t know much about the goal, with Jesus’ mighty cross hitting his thigh before he could react and flying over Krul.
Citing the example of “machine” Sterling, who has built a reputation for being in the right place to complete moves, Guardiola expects Grealish to become a regular goalscorer.
“If he’s got the goal scoring mentality like Raheem, yeah [he can score more]”Guardiola said.” When Raheem was here when I first arrived he had no goals in mind and we immediately changed his arrival.
“Today Raheem scored because he comes in at the center, he’s a machine there. He changed his mind and decided he was going to score. Jack has this mentality of scoring and scoring. win games. If he has the Raheem mentality, then he can do it, too. “
