Manchester City managed to build on their excellent FA Cup win on the weekend with another demolition of a Premier League side on Wednesday night.
This time West Ham United were the victims with Pep Guardiola’s side demonstrating their season isn’t quite as a dead, as pundits had predicted after poor results against Everton and Tottenham Hotspur.
Pep Guardiola relied on youth to guide his side through the match with Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling and new signing Gabriel Jesus all starting at the London Stadium.
Before the match the Citizens boss warned these players that they had to perform now and couldn’t lean on the comfort of learning the game if they wanted regular first-team action and boy did they deliver. All three were superb in an attacking performance of the highest quality.
Benching Sergio Aguero for Jesus was a controversial move, but it paid off and now the young striker deserves another chance to show what he can do.
Here are THREE reasons why Gabriel must start Sunday’s home match vs. Swansea…
He’s no long-term project
It’s clear that, despite being the tender age of 19, that Gabriel Jesus is ready to come in and make a massive impact on the Premier League.
There were some who wondered whether he’d be a long-term project at City or a player for the here and now. Those questions have been answered. He became the first Manchester City player to score AND assist in his first Premier League start for the club, eclipsing even the likes of Sergio Aguero.
Having already scored 21 goals for Palmeiras in 2016 before his arrival in England, he’s a player in red hot form and given his age has the chance to become better with every passing week.
Is he the man to ensure that Man City qualify for the Champions League?
He suits Guardiola’s system
We’re not saying here that Gabriel is a better player than Aguero, that’s plainly a ridiculous comparison given the stage he is at in his career. What can be said, though, is that he fits into Guardiola’s attacking system much more naturally.
Aguero is a natural goalscorer, almost a classic poacher, someone who can make goals from nothing by himself or latch onto mistakes and punish teams in a clinical fashion.
Gabriel appears to be more of a team player, someone who can compliment Guardiola’s onrushing attacking midfielders. That was evident when he set-up Kevin De Bruyne for Manchester City’s opener on Wednesday night.
His movement is exceptional, his reading of his teammates already at a near psychic level. That he’s slotted into Guardiola’s set-up so seamlessly, so early in his career at the Etihad bodes very well for the weeks and months to come.
Aguero isn’t getting it done
Sergio Aguero will go down as a Manchester City legend, there’s no doubt about it, but even legends go through sticky spells.
The Argentinian striker has only scored one Premier League goal since November and has failed to find the net in big matches against Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham.
As harsh as it is, there’s no room for starting on reputation alone in the Premier League, it’s all about current form.
It’s true he’s scored his usual plentiful amount of goals this season but they’ve mostly come in the early stages of the season and now Guardiola must make the call to bench him for another week or two and give Gabriel the room to breathe and bed himself in.
Who knows? With the right attitude, it could be a motivating factor for Aguero and he could come back into the fold better than ever.