Pep Guardiola has hailed the contribution of new Manchester City signing Gabriel Jesus in the club's FA Cup fourth-round 3-0 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The 19-year-old, making his first start for the club, assisted Raheem Sterling's opener with a through-ball in the first half before winning the free kick from which Yaya Toure scored City's third in second-half added time.

Discussing Jesus, Guardiola told BBC Sport: "He helped a lot. It's the first game and it's not easy for him to communicate as he doesn't speak English, so he'll need time. But he makes a lot of movement and his assist was outstanding.

"Sooner or later the new player has to start to play. Of course they have to deserve to play and show me on the pitch and on the training session but he made a good five or 10 minutes against Tottenham, when he came in and created two or three chances.

"Today he made a good assist and it was his last action, the fight and run with the central defender, and he won the duel. He played very good. He's very young, though - we cannot forget he's 19 years old and he has a lot of room to improve. But we're here to help him and improve his natural condition he has."

Prior to Saturday, Jesus had not started a game since Palmeiras beat Chapecoense 1-0 in the Brazilian top flight in late November.