Man City boss Pep Guardiola leaps to defence of Gabriel Jesus after 104 days without a goal in Premier League

Pep Guardiola leapt to the defence of Gabriel Jesus after the Brazil striker extended his goalless run in the Premier League to two and half months.

Jesus has not scored a league goal since his strike against Huddersfield on August 19. And covering for the rested Sergio Aguero against Bournemouth on Saturday, his troubles in front of goal continued.

He’s scored just five goals all season, with three of those coming against Shakhtar Donetsk last month.

But Guardiola, who has been fiercely defensive of the striker dubbed the ‘new Neymar’ in his homeland, insists he has no issues with the 21-year-old.

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“The opinion he doesn’t make a good performance is yours, I don’t agree with you,” said the Manchester City manager when asked to assess Jesus’ fitful form. “He wants to score goals, but how he helps us, he needed to make a movement and he made 1,000 runs in behind. He helps us a lot.”

While Jesus suffered another frustrating day, Leroy Sane was outstanding in City’s 3-1 win.

Guardiola hailed the German’s performance, but also set him the challenge of reaching the same level on a consistent basis.

Guardiola, who dropped Sane at the start of the season over concerns about his attitude, said: “When he is going to complain in the future about why he doesn’t play, I will send this video. Because if he plays this way, he is going to play.

“I ask all of them the best of them so if you want to be competitive in all competitions, there is no other option. He was incredible, offensively, defensively.

“I don’t know what he ate today, but maybe in the future it will be on the menu.”

“We never had doubts about Leroy, but he is young, 21-22, that is all. Maybe in the future, he will be more consistent like Fernandinho, David Silva, Bernardo Silva and every game be an eight or nine (out of 10). That is the challenge.”

Sane set up two of City’s goals – Bernardo’s opener and Ilkay Gundogan’s strike to round off the 3-1 win.

Callum Wilson levelled the scores at 1-1 just before half time, but Raheem Sterling’s strike after the break put the Premier League champions on course for three points.

They now sit five-points clear of Liverpool, who face Everton in the Merseyside derby on Sunday.

The north London derby also means dropped points for at least one of Arsenal and Tottenham.

Guardiola added: “I think it is too early to see how decisive it is. We didn’t finish the first round of matches, but we played today and tomorrow one of Arsenal and Tottenham will drop points.

“Our success in the last 15 months is we don’t care too much about the other sides. We expect Liverpool is not going to drop points. They are tough sides.

“Many teams won one Premier League title, but do it again and again, get 100 points, it is not easy.”