LONDON • For all the talk of Manchester City not having a No. 9 striker this season, manager Pep Guardiola insisted yesterday that he is thrilled with having "these type of players" like Gabriel Jesus.
City took revenge for their Champions League final loss to Chelsea in May and secured a big three points in the early running for the Premier League title with a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge, thanks to the Brazilian forward.
Jesus' deflected effort eight minutes into the second half separated the sides, but City should have been more convincing winners as they laid down a marker after losing to Chelsea three times towards the end of last season.
"Gabriel always gives everything. You cannot say anything to him. Every single game he runs for his teammates. Having these types of players makes me so happy," said Guardiola on BT Sport.
"Today the guys were outstanding. At this stadium and against this opponent, to do what we have done makes me so proud.
"We came here and did our game. Sometimes you can't do it because the opponent is better.
"We were encouraged to press high and they could not make the build-up."
However, City's lack of a prolific goalscorer to turn that dominance into goals was again exposed.
Guardiola bemoaned on Friday that his side lack a "weapon" of the likes of Chelsea's record signing Romelu Lukaku or Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo to decide games inside the box.
Instead, City have to rely on the collective creative effort of the richly assembled squad as Guardiola named Kevin de Bruyne, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva in his starting line-up.
Rather than stepping into the shoes of the departed Sergio Aguero, Jesus has found himself deployed as a right winger so far this season.
The Brazilian should have done better with City's best chance of the first half when he sliced well wide after controlling Silva's cross to the far post.
However, he got the break City's performance deserved to open the scoring on 53 minutes as his effort deflected off Jorginho to leave Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy flat-footed.
That was just the 15th Premier League goal Chelsea had conceded in 25 games since Thomas Tuchel took charge.
The Blues boss said on BT Sport: "We lost the game and City deserved to win. Until the goal we were very strong in the last 20 metres of the field, but only there unfortunately. Everywhere else we were not good enough to relieve pressure and to hurt them.
"Overall, simply, we were not at our best level. We tried to push and get the crowd behind us. It was a very emotional game but never on our highest level."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
