Jesus missed a golden chance in the second half but did provide an assist for Riyad Mahrez
Tuesday 4 December 2018 23:42, UK
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola backed striker Gabriel Jesus after the Brazilian drew a blank in the Premier League leaders’ 2-1 win at Watford.
Jesus, standing in for the injured Sergio Aguero, missed a golden second-half chance as Leroy Sane and Riyad Mahrez scored City's goals. He has scored just one of City's 45 goals in the league, his last coming against Huddersfield in August.
Sane, Mahrez help City go five clear
"It's important he had the chances, creating the spaces, and the second goal he create for himself," said Guardiola, referring to the assist Jesus supplied for Mahrez's goal. "[He] does many, many other things, in terms of the pressing, in terms of helping in many, many situations."
Aguero did not travel south after suffering a muscle abductor problem in training, and Guardiola said of his leading goalscorer: "I don't know right now, tomorrow they are going to tell me, they are going to make the real check."
City had dominated Watford, only to be given a scare in the last few minutes by Abdoulaye Doucoure's scrambled goal.
"In the last minute anything could happen, but I think we played 65, 70 minutes at the top level, so aggressive, " said Guardiola. "They had one clear chance in the first half with [Troy] Deeney, but we had many. In general, three-quarters of the game was really good.
"We spoke right now in the locker room, we have to learn about what happened in the last 20, 25 minutes, that is the lesson. Never can you forget to play, until the last second."
Guardiola remains happy with his team's start to the season; Tuesday's win put them five points clear of Liverpool, who play at Burnley on Wednesday.
"Fifteen games, 13 victories, two draws, with one at Anfield, so I am not complaining, " he continued. "We are qualified for the Champions League last 16, so I don't have many regrets. What happened today in the last five minutes is the normal process, and to improve. To improve, you have to live these situations.
"Of course we will visualise in training, other teams having five or 10 minutes, everybody can create problems and beat us."
