Guardiola welcomes return to form for Gabriel Jesus as City beat Everton

Pep Guardiola welcomed

Gabriel Jesus’s return to form as the Brazilian struck twice in a 3-1 win over Everton as Manchester City leapfrogged Liverpool back to the top of the Premier League.

Jesus hadn’t scored a Premier League goal for four months before opening the scoring midway through the first-half and bulleted home a header to double City’s lead early in the second-half.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin briefly gave Everton hope, but Raheem Sterling came offff the bench to make the game safe with his first touch and move City two points ahead of Liverpool, who host Manchester United on Sunday.

City are fighting it out at the summit of the table with the Reds.

“Strikers need to score goals,” said Guardiola of Jesus’s man- of-the-match performance.

“The difffffference today was that he scored as he was in better positions.”

Guardiola could even afffffford the luxury of leaving Kevin de Bruyne and Sergio Aguero on the bench on their return from injury as the Catalan coach again shuffled his pack for the busy December period. But fears that City lack a predator in front of goal when Aguero is absent were quashed by two fine finishes from Jesus.

“My confidence is back because my family is here and it helps me a lot. I needed my family in this moment,” the Brazilian said. “This year it

(the title) will be more difficult because the (other) clubs will play better. I think it is very important we have come back to first position.”