Raheem Sterling has become undroppable again for Pep Guardiola at Man City

Having spent the majority of 2021 being left on the sidelines, Raheem Sterling looks certain to be central to Manchester City hopes of silverware this year.

The England forward fell out of favour with Pep Guardiola either side of a world-class showing at Euro 2020, and it seems more remarkable with each passing week that the City manager was able to get by so well for so long without one of the undisputed stars of his time at the Etihad.

Sterling has had untold amounts of flak down the years, and while he has admirably changed the narrative off the pitch there are still flat-earthers out there who question his footballing contributions.

The 27-year-old isn't helped by the fact that some of his misses have lived long in the memory; an Amazon documentary chose one shocker at Burnley as a plot point while supporters are still haunted by the Lyon quarter-final. But it is impossible to have had the success that Sterling has had at a top club over so many years without being a top player, and he showed against Brentford the qualities that have yet again made him undroppable when Guardiola needs a breakthrough.

Brentford were tough to break down and City had a number of world-class players on the pitch, yet it was telling that it was Sterling who earned them their first-half lead. He had already threatened with an ambitious overhead kick after finding space in the box - the space that nobody else seems able to find so often in the penalty box - when he won the ball back in the Brentford third and drove into the area before drawing a foul from Mads Roerslov.

That moves him back to top spot in the list of players who have won the most penalties in the history of the Premier League, and many have come in this way: the contact