Pep Guardiola reveals the secret behind Raheem Sterling's Manchester City career renaissance
The England international has worked hard to become a success at City
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Your support makes all the difference.Raheem Sterling is receiving help from a former Arsenal captain to prolong his Manchester City career, and end any prospect of a move to the Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Arteta, who spent five years at the Emirates Stadium before becoming a member of City’s coaching staff, has been working closely with the winger to turn him into the prolific goalscorer that manager Pep Guardiola demands he become.
Sterling could have moved to north London in August as City tried to secure the £60m signing of Alexis Sanchez, but both deals ended up falling through.
The England winger declared last month that he never considered the prospect of moving to Arsenal, and that he was determined to make himself a success in Manchester.
With Arteta’s help, Sterling is well on course for the best goalscoring season of his career, and hopes to add to his total against Arsenal in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
“I think Raheem is enjoying scoring goals,” Guardiola said. “He’s not scared, he’s not afraid to take a risk.
“And now he’s seeing how fun, how good it is to score goals. Now he’s more focused on that.
“Mikel Arteta is working many, many hours and days after training specifically about the last action on the pitch – that control in the last moment to make the right movement in the final three or four metres.
“Raheem has wanted to stay there on the training pitch, to improve, to practise, to shoot at the goalkeepers.
“It’s part of the mentality he needs. He knows a striker has to score goals and he has to do that if he wants to achieve the next step.
“You won’t survive in the high level teams in his position if you don’t score goals.”
Goalscoring used to be a problem for Sterling, who often looked short of confidence when chances came his way, particularly in his early career.
He has never scored more than 11 goals in a season, but has 10 already this term, with four in his past five matches.
Guardiola added: “I think it’s mainly because he’s decided: ‘I want to score goals. I can do that and I’m enjoying that.
“His final pass still has to improve – he has to do it better. He has got better but he can still do better.
“Sometimes it’s not possible but the big, big players decide well in those moments.
“But we can’t forget he’s 22 years old. We demand a lot with those kind of players. But he is curious and if he will improve he will get it, for sure. He’s young and he has time and we are there to help him.”
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