Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson praised Raheem Sterling after the forward's two goal performance in Manchester City's 3-1 win.

Sterling scored his 16th and 17th goals of the Premier League campaign, and although it represented a bad afternoon for the Eagles, Hodgson could appreciate the growth of a player that he managed as England manager:

"Very impressed (with Sterling), he deserves a lot of credit as an individual, for doing the work he needed to do on his game to take his game to the next level.

"I am pretty sure he has had a lot of assistance from his manager and the manager's coaching staff, and the quality of players around him. I don't know if he pays tribute to that, but I am sure he would, and it has certainly been a factor in his development and he has developed so well thanks to him and the effort he's put into the game.

"It is interesting for us to see what efforts players like him will put into his game, not really when they're on the attack and the things everyone gives them credit for but the side of the game that a lot of quality players don't really want to do: seeing him chase back to get Wilf Zaha, to prevent Zaha getting into a situation where he might be 1-v-1, I think that is a great credit him.

"He has always had that in him from the beginning but he has retained all that whilst improving aspects of his game like his decision-making, his goalscoring and ability to control the ball and beat a man."