“We cannot substitute the mother and when the family can’t be there, it’s difficult,” Pep Guardiola told reporters on Friday over concerns that Gabriel Jesus’ form will suffer now his family have returned to Brazil. There were no signs of a detrimental impact on his performances as he scored a brace in Manchester City’s 3-0 victory over Wolves.
Friends and family of the 21-year-old – who left ahead of Wolves’ visit – had made the trip over from Brazil for the festive period, arriving before his purple patch, which started against Everton on December 15. The forward has now bagged nine goals in his last five starts in all competitions despite four of those coming against Burton in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final.
It was a completely different matter before his family touched down in the UK, with the former Palmeiras striker only striking once in 13 Premier League appearances before the match against the Toffees. A serious foot issue was followed by a serious knee problem last spring: two difficulties that saw Jesus regress after his promising start to life at City. Jesus‘ return in his first two Premier League seasons was still quite impressive when he was injury-free. Seven from 10 in 2016/17 and 13 from 29 appearances in 2017/18 ain’t too shabby at all.
With Jesus’ contribution falling away this campaign, letting Sergio Aguero back into the main striking berth, Guardiola has always stressed that the Brazil international would find his feet again. His performance in their win against Wolves – that moves City back to within four points of leaders Liverpool in the race for the title – was essential to victory as City wasted a number of opportunities to give the scoreline an even greater gloss.
The Citizens opened the scoring within the first 15 minutes of the match, which has become commonplace now at this theatre of wonderful football, through Jesus. For ten minutes City struggled to break down a resilient Wolves defence before two passes cut them apart. Aymeric Laporte, such a trusty passer of the ball this season for Guardiola, threaded a perfect ball from the centre of the pitch through to Sane on the left before his inch-perfect ball across the face of goal was tapped home by Jesus. From back to front in an instant.
Willy Boly’s sending off on 19 minutes ruined the match as a spectacle when his over-the-top challenge won the ball – but his follow-through took out Bernardo Silva around the ankle. When I say ‘ruined’ in no way do I contest the decision from Craig Pawson but Wolves, who failed to land a single shot on target, looked well in the match at this point.
City dominated the first half with 78 per cent possession as Nuno Espirito Santo’s men went searching for some joy on the break. Those type of statistics are pretty much standard procedure for any team visiting the Etihad Stadium now. However, when Wolves did get hold of the ball in important areas they threatened a couple of times before the break. A particularly good chance came on 36 minutes when Raul Jimenez got the better of Laporte to find Jonny on the left but he got his pass all wrong with Diogo Jota free inside the box.
And just three minutes later it was goodnight Vienna, as Ryan Bennett – who has conceded a penalty in each of his last two games – brought the menacing Sterling down inside the area. Jesus stepped up to put any doubts over his post-festive form to the back of fans’ minds for now. City have now lost none of the last 20 Premier League matches in which Jesus has scored.
Substitute Kevin de Bruyne was one of an array of options off the bench for City, who also brought on Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan to increase the scoreline in the second half. It worked with 12 minutes of the match remaining when a beautiful ball into the box from the Belgium international was deflected into his own net by the unfortunate Conor Coady.
The match meandered for much of the second half to a predictable conclusion but there’s no doubt Guardiola will have been pleased to successfully navigate what could have been a tricky fixture. City’s two-match blip seems well and truly over, as their biggest win at home to Wolves since 1984 kept them firmly on the coat-tails of Jurgen Klopp’s men. It’s now five wins from their last five matches in all competitions for the Citizens.
“I know Sergio Aguero is an amazing player and helps me a lot,” Jesus said after the match. “When Sergio plays he helps the team and when I play I want to help as well. I play better now and to score goals is important to me because I am a striker.” Part of a centre-forward’s job description is to do the dirty work to give others a platform to shine and there is no question that Jesus has done that when given the opportunity. And now that he is starting to add goals back to his game it gives his boss a lovely selection problem up front.
“It is important for the striker [to score goals],” Guardiola said after the match. Jesus is smashing in a lot of them right now, with or without his mother.
Joe Williams