Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
STOPPING HEEM
ANOTHER Manchester City game, another compelling example of Raheem Sterling’s status as their most influential player.
It’s not even November yet he has racked up 13 goals in 14 games for Pep Guardiola’s champions this season, his best return at this stage of the campaign.
Sterling has started all but one of City’s nine Premier League games and could even eclipse last season’s 25-goal haul, the best of his career, before the Christmas decorations go up.
This is his fifth season with City and, with every goal and match-winning display, the £44million they paid Liverpool for him in the summer of 2015 looks like an even more of a steal.
While Guardiola can rotate the likes of Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva and namesake Bernardo, rarely can he do without the marauding presence and goalthreat of Sterling.
Sterling’s irresistible form makes him undroppable, with City team-mate Ilkay Gundogan claiming there are “no limits” to what the 24-year-old attacker – whose form has made him a target for Barcelona and Real Madrid – can achieve in his already stellar career.
“I think he made a big step forward,” said Gundogan, scorer of City’s third goal.
“The way he is now on match days, with his mentality, with his aggressiveness, with and without the ball, it is crucial for us.
“We need this kind of gamechanging players. At the moment he is probably the one player that can change everything for us and we want to help him keep going like that, scoring and scoring.
“I feel there are no limits for him. It’s about us to help him to achieve all his targets and try to get out the best possible Raheem Sterling in the next few months. I think he is among the best five attacking players in the world. It’s all about consistency.
“As of now, he has shown in the last year-and-a-half that he’s able to be that consistent. If he continues like that, he can be on the top.”
Sterling, who tormented Villa throughout, set City on their way to a deserved win with the opener, 25 seconds after the restart, drilling a low left-footed shot beyond Tom Heaton.
Further goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Gundogan sealed the win, the only blot a late red card for Fernandinho, which means the midfielder – who has been filling in at centre-back - will miss tomorrow’s Carabao Cup tie against Southampton, a game in which he was unlikely to figure anyway.
Gundogan revealed how Guardiola’s brutal half-time team talk ensured City emerged for the second half with greater purpose and intensity, enabling them to secure the win that has kept them within touching distance of leaders and title rivals Liverpool. “At half-time he wanted a little bit more than what we showed in the first half,” said Gundogan.
“He thought we weren’t playing good enough to compete for the title.
“Obviously we wanted to put that on the pitch straight away and it worked out perfectly – exactly how the manager wanted, what he demanded.
“We could have scored in the first half, we created good chances and weren’t clinical enough. But we responded very well in the second-half and it was a welldeserved win.
“The earlier we score, the better for us. But sometimes it’s about patience, sometimes we’re not able to score straight away. So we have to wait.
“That is also a skill, to wait for the right moment, not to lose your nerve.”