Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola declared Kevin de Bruyne a "legend" after their 3-2 win at Newcastle.

De Bruyne scored once and laid on the injury-time winner for City.

“He's a special player, he's a legend who is so beloved for our people," said Guardiola.

“He's fresh in his mind because five months is a long time and in the second half of the season he can help us to be there until the end.

“He needs to have a bit more freedom and space and to be able to move to where his nose or gut is telling him at that moment to create some passes.

“When Kevin has the ball, we need runners like Oscar as he did today, Phil and Erling. His goal was fantastic.

“I had the feeling that he wasn't ready for 90 minutes because he's been out - everyone was saying, 'OK, he can play, he can play' - we hoped he could come on when we had control of the game like Huddersfield last week for the last 20-25 minutes because how many times last season did he arrive at the by-line and provide the crosses?"