Guardiola: Silva and Jesus ‘incredible’, Stones ‘very impressive’

Jo Harrison

Pep Guardiola hailed his two goalscorers, as well as defender John Stones, for their roles in Manchester City’s win over Bournemouth.

David Silva and Gabriel Jesus scored to condemn Bournemouth to a 2-1 defeat, that leaves their opponents in a perilous position.

City, in contrast, already know where they will be finishing this season, with second place confirmed. However, they are still looking to build momentum in their final few games, and Guardiola was impressed with how they responded to the challenge from Bournemouth.

“It was difficult but our opponent played really well, they were really good and they pushed us a lot,” Guardiola told Match of the Day. “Their needs are higher than ours but we played our game.”

Guardiola had words of praise for his two goalscorers, hailing both Silva and Jesus as “incredible”.

“He is in an incredible performance,” he said of the former. “He is one of the guys who came back from lockdown in an incredible position.”

And for the latter, he added: “He is an incredible player, I said before he gives us not just goals but in the last few games he has also got the goals for us.”

The win over Bournemouth was an opportunity for John Stones in defence. The 26-year-old has featured less this season, but has started City’s last two home games.

Guardiola was impressed with the Englishman’s performance against Bournemouth, saying: “He played really good, defensively he was very impressive against fast players up front and against balls into the box. He played really well.”