‘Hot Sterling worth weight in gold now’

PEP GUARDIOLA is backing freescoring Raheem Sterling to continue his explosive start to the season as the Manchester City winger prepares to face his favourite team.

Sterling has hit four goals in the first two games of the campaign for the champions.

And the England ace will fancy his chances against Bournemouth today after scoring eight times in seven previous games against the Cherries.

Sterling’s odds of winning the Premier League’s Golden Boot have been slashed to 5/1 by some bookies, making him the third favourite behind Harry Kane and Mo Salah going into this weekend’s games.

And Guardiola said: “Normally it is not easy for wingers to score because they tend to work further away from the goals.

“But Raheem moves from side to side so well and he has an incredible sense of getting into the box with the right tempo to score when the ball is coming from the opposite side. He is fantastic at that.

“Some players play well, but forget the goal is there.

“But Raheem always has a sense where the goal is and knows that if he attacks that space he can score.

“If he can win the Golden Boot of course I will congratulate him.”

Guardiola refuses to let his players use the new VAR regulations as an excuse for dropping points.

Gabriel Jesus had a last-minute strike ruled out against Tottenham last week after replays showed the ball brush the hand of defender Aymeric Laporte.

But Guardiola said: “We had 10 shots on target, but we only scored two goals. We must work on things we can control – and we can’t control VAR.”