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Pep Guardiola praised the impact of Jeremy Doku after the summer signing from Rennes scored his first Manchester City goal to help the champions recover to beat West Ham.<\/p>\n
City fought back from a 1-0 deficit at half-time to level within seconds of the restart, Doku cutting inside Vladimir Coufal with excellent footwork and sliding beyond Alphonse Areola for his first goal for City.<\/p>\n
Silva and Haaland struck in the final 15 minutes to ensure City maintained their perfect start and stayed top of the Premier League with a 3-1 triumph.<\/p>\n
All that had looked less likely when James Ward-Prowse headed in from Coufal\u2019s cross in the first half to give West Ham a deserved lead and put them on course to overtake Guardiola\u2019s side in the league.<\/p>\n
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The manager said he had not expected such an immediate impact from the 21-year-old Doku, who cost \u00a355million to sign from the Ligue 1 side in the final week of the transfer window, and feared there was a shyness to his performance when he made his debut against Fulham before the international break.<\/p>\n
Guardiola watched that game remotely from Barcelona whilst he recovered from back surgery, but since returning to Manchester has been impressed by the progress the Belgium international has made following the 5-1 win against Marco Silva\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in Barcelona, I had the feeling that he played a little bit shy (against Fulham),\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019d just arrived, had two or three days training, with a team that won the Treble. Maybe he was a little bit in this way.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut today, no. (I said) use your quality as a winger. One against one, one against two; go. If you don\u2019t have the feeling, pass back to Josko (Gvardiol) and play again.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was from the first minute incredible, aggressive, great determination, arrived many times to the byline. Many, may good things he\u2019s done. Really, really pleased. We thought the quality was there and today he started to prove it.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen you buy a young player like him for many years (contract), we have to be patient. We cannot expect, I didn\u2019t expect the second game for City to play like he did today. The way he played today, I don\u2019t remember from a long time ago something like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are processes that he has to learn. Always we are there to help him. At Manchester City, every player has to be (himself). All the players here have a lot of quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
City have won all five of their league games this season as they seek an unprecedented fourth consecutive league title.<\/p>\n
They were placed under pressure by West Ham for a period in the second half as David Moyes\u2019 side went close through Michail Antonio, Emerson and Kurt Zouma, with Ederson in goal producing a string of fine saves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say West Ham had more chances in the second half than the first,\u201d said Guardiola. \u201cWe created against a team that defends so deep and really, really well. We created a lot of chances in the 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
I’m so proud of the team. It\u2019s great win for us<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so proud of the team. It\u2019s great win for us, for the problems (injuries) we have in the squad. It doesn\u2019t matter, the guys always respond well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spoke at half-time, don\u2019t be affected by the result because you\u2019re playing really, really good in the first half. In the second half we were lucky to start and score a goal immediately, we had to be patient then and we had our chances, they had their chances. But really, really good in the way we played.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moyes reflected on a game in which his team ran the European champions close but ultimately did not have enough to avoid going down to their first defeat of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur other games have had a lot similarities,\u201d he said. \u201cChelsea missed a penalty kick, then Mick breaks through and scores to make it 2-1. Small margins in football. To be fair, the early season ones have gone for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we played against a top team and we\u2019ve done an OK job. Bits l liked, bits of it I didn\u2019t like. But overall I have to say the players did a brilliant job.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe tried to make it difficult, we always do against City. I think you have to be really clinical and also really clinical defensively as well. You can\u2019t afford to make many mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the first goal came at a bad time. I thought their second goal was a mistake and we should have dealt with that much better. It changed the game really at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n