Gabriel Jesus bizarrely compared to a watermelon by Pep Guardiola after Manchester City thrash West Ham
City boss was speaking after seeing his side ease to a 3-0 Premier League win over West Ham
PEP GUARDIOLA lapped up his first slice of melon as Manchester City swept West Ham aside.
City’s teenage Brazilian star scored in his first Premier League start to earn a bizarre compliment from boss Guardiola.
Guardiola said: “You never know. It's like a watermelon. You have to open and see it. The prospect was good, a young player with good talent.
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“He's so aggressive. He wants to be a good player, and that helps a lot. He has dreams about what he wants to do in his future career. He wants to become something in world football, and we're going to try and get it for us.”
Jesus, 19, also provided an assist for Kevin de Bruyne to score City’s first goal after 17 minutes.
Skipper David Silva and Yaya Toure scored from the penalty spot in front of watching Chelsea boss Antonio Conte.
But Guardiola insists his team still needs a miracle to win the title as they trail the Premier League leaders by ten points.
Guardiola said: “Conte doesn't have to be too worried about what he saw today. Only Chelsea can lose the Premier League.
“It's a mistake to think about Chelsea when you are 10 points behind. You have to think about winning games. We started well, but we've been inconsistent since.
"To qualify for the Champions League and fight until the end, you have to make a good run of victories, otherwise it will be impossible.
“Only Chelsea can lose it. Look at how many they've lost in the last 16.
They're not going to lose four or five in the games they have left. But anything can happen in football.
“They have to travel to Old Trafford. We have to go there. We saw with Watford yesterday, and Tottenham who could not win at Sunderland with their talented young players, what can happen.
“You have to be there trying to win our own games. After that, if the opponents don't win, that's better. We are not thinking about big goals at the moment because the gap is too much.”
Jesus was given his big chance in place of Sergio Aguero who was left on the bench along with keeper Claudio Bravo.
City’s £27 million forward said: ““I am really happy. I was looking forward to score goals for Man City.
“I am used to scoring many goals. But I also like to assist and help the team in other ways. I am in the starting line-up, it’s great.
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“The players and clubs are helping me to settle in, which allows me to focus on football.”
Guardiola reckons rampaging youngsters Jesus, Kevin de Bruyne and Raheem Sterling make City a standout team in Europe.
He said: “These three guys are the future for this club. The average age is 20 years old. You cannot see strikers as young as those in big European clubs at the moment, so that is good for the future.
"We're delighted Gabriel arrived already for the team. He's showing us his potential and his level.”
City have now fired nine goals past West Ham in their last two meetings - without reply.
Hammers boss Slaven Bilic said: “It's hard to find positive things from this game. It was well deserved for City, we have to give them credit. But we helped them. It sounds crazy but we started well and didn't have that many problems when they had the ball.
“But when we had the ball, before the first and the third goals, instead of using the space behind their high line we tried to play square balls.
"Sometimes you get away with that playing against teams of less quality, but if you do that against them, players like Silva and De Bruyne, seeing your team split in two and open. Players like Sane, Jesus and Sterling punish you with their pace. That's what happened.”