EPL: Guardiola praises Jesus after scoring 4 against Watford

Pep Guardiola has hailed Gabriel Jesus for his fantastic performance for Manchester City against Watford on Saturday.

The City walloped Watford 5-1 to maintain a comfortable lead on the league table.

Jesus scored his first Premier League hat-trick on his 155th appearance in the competition. It made him the fifth Brazilian hat-trick scorer in the competition, after Afonso Alves, Robinho, Roberto Firmino and Lucas Moura, but the first of those to score four times in a single match.

City moved four points clear of title rivals Liverpool with the resounding victory, ahead of Jurgen Klopp’s team hosting Merseyside rivals Everton on Sunday.

Guardiola, who has won all of his 11 managerial clashes with Watford by a combined score of 47-5, said City could still improve upon their five-star display, but he was full of praise for his versatile Brazilian forward.

“We didn’t defend well, we were not aggressive enough,” Guardiola told Sky Sports.
“But the players up front, not just Gabriel for his incredible four goals, all of them were brilliant.

“If there’s one person who deserves the best in life for him, his family and his friends, it’s Gabriel.

“All of us at the club, when he has one of these situations, we’re happy for him because he’s so generous. It doesn’t matter what position he’s going to play, we know how he fights for his mates. He’s fantastic.”

City also became the first English side in history to record 15 consecutive competitive wins over a single opponent by hammering the Hornets, but Guardiola insisted the victory didn’t alter the Premier League title race.

“Nothing changes,” he said. “When we won against Brighton we were two points behind [before the game], now we’re four in front. Brighton was a ‘final’. We had another ‘final’ today and we won it. Now we have an opportunity to play a ‘final’ against Leeds [next Saturday].

“Nothing changes. We have to win all five [remaining] games to be champions.”