Raheem Sterling has played down the importance of Manchester City going top of the Premier League and stressed their focus is on the next game. The 26-year-old dismissed the noise surrounding team selection and rotation from the Spanish coach insisting “everyone expects it”.
Raheem Sterling said: “I just try to play, contribute and really happy I got it today. You just try to get on with the game, knew today would be difficult and get a good start. We did that and then set ourselves for the rest of the game. It gives you more confidence, more passes, not forcing things, then you try and get the second we done that then we’re in full control then. It’s always nice scoring with the head. They don’t come often but I’m happy that I scored a header today. As I said we went 2-0. We had chances to make it three, four but didn’t take them then we got the one in the second half which kind of eased it a bit. But, we could have finished better for sure.”
In the early stages of the season, Sterling was resigned to stints off the bench or brought off on the odd occasion but since the November international break, he has enjoyed a good scoring run amid the trust being reinstalled by Guardiola.
Raheem Sterling added: “It’s a team full of competition. That’s what it’s built for. When you get a chance in the team you have to make the most of it. I think everyone expects it, we’ve been working together for years now and understand what the manager expects from us. The teams on a great win streak, we just need to keep going. I don’t think it’s important at the minute, it’s always nice to be top, but we need to keep focused and one game at a time. It’s a very difficult ground to come to, got the win and focus onto the next one. Not really focused on, you can’t really focus on if you’ve gone top, gone second at the moment all you can do is prepare for the game coming in three days, it comes thick and fast here, that’s all we’ll keep doing. See what the manager does, he’s a manager capable of a few changes and we’ll see what he brings.
