‘We are going in right direction by taking a knee’
RAHEEM Sterling believes the fact players took the knee as the Premier League restarted proves that the Black Lives Matters movement is heading in the right direction.
Officials and coaches joined in at the start of both matches last night, between Aston Villa and Sheffield United and City against Arsenal, and Sterling was pleased to see the act of solidarity.
“I see it as a massive step for the Premier League to allow something like that to happen. It shows we’re going in the right direction,” he said.
“Little by little we’re seeing change and that’s what everyone is hoping for, not just black players, I think the majority of the country and it’s great to see.”
City boss Pep Guardiola also believes it was a positive step.
After watching his side claim a 3-0 win behind closed doors, he added: “We should send one thousand million messages for black people. For centuries, for hundreds of years to do what we do for these lovely people.
“I’m embarrassed, I’m ashamed for what the white people have done for the black people.
“Just because you are born with another colour of skin, how can people think you are completely different than others?
“All these gestures are good, they are positive but you have to do it with facts.
“It can’t be solved in a few days but everything we can do we can do. We have to do a lot of things for the black people that we have not done so far.”
Sterling opened the scoring in a routine victory for City at the Etihad, with Kevin de Bruyne’s penalty and Phil Foden’s late strike completing a 3-0 win.
“In the beginning there was a lot of energy, everyone wanted the ball,” Guardiola said.
“It was important to get the first goal before halftime and then after that with the penalty and the sending-off it was a completely different situation.
“You cannot say anything else about that but be happy about the performance of the team and everyone and the good shape.
“We have players who are so dynamic maybe they don’t need many training sessions to be in top condition.”
It was a miserable return to the Etihad for Guardiola’s former No.2 Mikel Arteta, who said: “Everything went wrong from the first minute when Granit Xhaka got injured and we had to change the plan.
“Every possible accident hopefully happened today and not in the rest of the 10 games we have ahead of us.”
But Arteta would not criticise the hapless David Luiz, who was sent off, and said the night would have no bearing on a decision to exercise the option on his contract.
“He has spoken in the dressing room,” Arteta said.
“David is someone who is very honest, straightforward.
“But my opinion hasn’t changed from the moment I joined the team and it won’t change because of a difficult performance tonight.”