Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has praised Eric Garcia over his progress this season.

Garcia has been thrust into first-team action to cover for the absences of John Stones, Nicolas Otamendi and Aymeric Laporte.

Guardioa said, "Last season he played a few games in the Carabao Cup and did really well. This season as well, he is a guy who does not mistakes. He is very clever with his movement - it is not easy for him to be on the left side with a right foot.

"I'm not a nice guy because I gave him an opportunity but he would be comfortable playing on the right foot, the left is not easy, but he is coping so well.

"He is a guy who doesn't make mistakes and he is intelligent. He helped us with many problems that we had, Nico had problems and John is coming back, we had just Fernandinho in these games."