Pep Guardiola insists Kevin De Bruyne “is back” after his stunning free-kick beat Leicester City, while the Manchester City head coach confirmed Erling Haaland missed out through ligament damage.
City moved to the Premier League summit on Saturday as De
Bruyne’s wonderful 25-yard effort sealed a narrow 1-0 victory at the King Power
Stadium, where the visitors were without top scorer Haaland.
Guardiola admitted he had expected more from the Belgium
international in recent weeks, while the City boss is hopeful his number nine
will be fit again for next weekend’s clash with Fulham.
“Kevin De Bruyne is back,” Guardiola told BT Sport.
“He was not playing good the last few games, but today he
was amazing. He knows it.
“There was no space and we had to be patient. [Leicester]
changed it, and it was a difficult game, because they had 10 players so deep
and it’s so difficult.
“After we scored the goal, they changed their rhythm and in
the Premier League, the last few minutes are always difficult, so it’s a
massive victory for us.”
Asked when he thought Haaland would return, Guardiola told
BBC Sport: “I don’t know. He has ligament damage.
“He feels better and we have one more week as he won’t play
against Sevilla [on Wednesday] because we have already qualified [in the
Champions League].
“And then hopefully against Fulham, he can help us. If not,
he might play against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup [on November 9].”
De Bruyne believes City demonstrated their ability to cope
without Haaland, while the midfield maestro also paid tribute to goalkeeper
Ederson, who showed marvellous reflexes to deny Youri Tielemans’ thumping
20-yard volley.
“We have proved we can win with or without Erling Haaland,”
De Bruyne said. “Ederson has been great. Sometimes, we only talk about his
distribution, but he’s a great keeper, and he proves it every week.
“We made it difficult for ourselves, we were a bit tired.
They were very negative for 70 minutes, but then their changes made it a
different game.
“We didn’t keep the ball in their half, but we still could
have scored a second.”
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