What Pep Guardiola told Jeremy Doku before West Ham as he makes admission over Man City winger

Pep Guardiola admitted even he didn't think new signing Jeremy Doku would play as well as he did at West Ham.

Manchester City paid Rennes £55.5m to buy the 21-year-old winger this summer but assistant Juanma Lillo cautioned against putting too much responsibility on his shoulders too early and he could only show glimpses of his potential on debut against Fulham. However, on his second outing he terrorised West Ham defender Vladimir Coufal and got the important equaliser in a 3-1 win for the Blues to show he can quickly influence games.

Guardiola was nodding along at the mere mention of Doku's name in his press conference at the London Stadium and did not need an invitation to talk of how well the new recruit had done in City's fifth straight Premier League win. While the Blues know that it will take time for any player to adapt to this environment, Doku has raised expectations.

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"I was in Barcelona but I had the feeling he was a little bit shy [against Fulham]," he said. "It's normal after just two or three days of training and then in the team that won the Treble.

"Today, no. We spoke for him to use his quality as a winger and go when it was one against one or two, or if not the feeling to go past then to pass back to Josko [Gvardiol] and go again. Use your quality and lose the ball? It's no problem.

"From the first minute, aggressive and with determination, many, many good things he has done. We thought the quality was there and today he started to prove it - not just the goal.

"When you buy a young player like him for many years, we have to be patient. I