Pep Guardiola hailed Kevin De Bruyne as a “legend” after the midfielder scored a goal and an assist on his return to the Premier League to help Manchester City to a dramatic 3-2 victory over Newcastle United.
De Bruyne came on as a 69th-minute substitute with City trailing 2-1 at St James' Park before scoring to make it 2-2 and then setting up 20-year-old Oscar Bobb for the winner in the minute 91.
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It was the Belgian's first league appearance since August after spending five months on the sidelines due to a hamstring injury that required surgery to correct.
“He's a legend,” Guardiola said. “I had the feeling that I was not ready for the 90 minutes after five months, so we have that situation, an impact in the last minutes.
“Our people love him for the goal and the assist and hopefully in the last few months he can help us be there until the end.”
The result, which looked unlikely when Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon scored in the space of two first-half minutes to put Newcastle up 2-1 after Bernardo Silva's opener, moves City into second place in the table. two points behind leaders Liverpool.
And after an exciting evening, Guardiola was encouraged to talk about his team's chances of winning a record fourth consecutive Premier League title.
“The team is alive,” he said.
“Why shouldn't we try again? We won three [titles] in a row, five in the last six, so why not? “It's very important because Liverpool have been flying for the last month and we have to go to Anfield, so it's better to be close to them.”
City's only drawback was Ederson's injury that forced the Brazilian goalkeeper to leave the field after five minutes.
Guardiola's team will not play again until the FA Cup fourth round match against Tottenham on January 26, and Guardiola is hopeful the problem is not serious.
“He has a great knock,” said the City manager.
“I didn't talk to the doctor. But just one knock, he'll be fine because he won't play for 10 days.”
