Pep Guardiola hopeful over injury picked up by Gabriel Jesus

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that he is hoping striker Gabriel Jesus is not facing a spell on the sidelines after being forced off early in the win over Bournemouth.

The Citizens' 2-0 victory at the Vitality Stadium was tarnished slightly by the knock picked up by their January signing just 13 minutes into the match.

Jesus, who has three goals to his name since arriving at the club last month, was chasing down a through-ball from Raheem Sterling on the edge of the box when he went down clutching his ankle.

Guardiola is unsure of the extent of the injury, telling BBC Sport: "Hopefully it won't be for a long time, we will have to wait until tomorrow. Hopefully – I will pray tonight – it will not be a big issue."

Speaking of his side's straightforward triumph on the south coast, which lifts them within eight points of league leaders Chelsea, the former Barcelona boss was delighted to see City stick to their gameplan.

"We made a real performance," he added. "I am so pleased with how we did and especially the last 10-15 minutes, we did the right way to make the result with a thousand million passes.

"It is important to score goals, we are in deficit but it is OK. The gap is still so massive. We just focus on the next game."

Aguero, left on the bench from the start for City's last three league games, came on for Jesus but could not find his 16th goal of the campaign.