Raheem Sterling says Pep Guardiola has removed the needless dribbles from his game and has turned him into a ruthless goalscorer.

It is hard to argue with the methodology of the Manchester City manager when considering the 17 goals Sterling has now scored this season, his latest coming in Wednesday's 1-0 win at Newcastle.

That tally is already six more than he has managed in any previous campaign and his 13 in the league are only bettered by Harry Kane and Mo Salah.

Raheem Sterling dribbles past Newcastle's DeAndre Yedlin on Wednesday night

But Pep Guardiola has told Sterling to cut out excessive dribbling from his game

'I've probably had better seasons dribbling, but this is the most efficient I've been and that's exactly what I want to do. There is no point dribbling if you are not helping the team,' said Sterling when asked about his improvement under Guardiola this year.

'It is definitely my best season in terms of goalscoring. Who wouldn't enjoy this? It's something I've always wanted to do and I've always wanted to improve on and get better at. I'm just happy to bring that to pass and hopefully I can carry on.'

Sterling celebrated another winning goal for Manchester City at St James' Park

The England forward swept the ball past Rob Elliot to score the only goal of the game

The midweek win was City's 18th on the spin in the league and another victory at Crystal Palace on Sunday will equal the record set by Guardiola's Bayern Munich in Europe's top five divisions.

Sterling, though, says talk of records is not something the dressing room is too bothered about.

'I don't think anyone is too focused on that,' he said, with City now 15 points clear at the top.

'Keep winning - that's the biggest motivation that you can have, to have the next games come so thick and fast, we have to try and keep that run going.

'Once you win the game and the stats come up, that's all well and good. They're nice to have on your CV but we have to keep winning. Records only stand for a certain amount of time and we can't be thinking about that.

'We just have to have a single focus on getting the job done. If it happens, it happens, but we have to go into games with a mentality to get the job done.'

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Newcastle were criticised for their negative tactics as City were restricted to scoring one goal in the Premier League for the first time since winning at Chelsea in September.

But Sterling believes it proves that Guardiola's side will find a way to win whatever the opposition do and even when City are not at their brilliant best.

'It's not always about how pretty you look, sometimes we have to grind out the result, and that's what we did at Newcastle,' said the England winger.

'That's the team spirit you need. You are not always going to have things go your way and finish 3-0 or 4-0, even though we had chances to finish the game.

'In this league, if you don't finish your chances, teams will come back to try and haunt you.

'Every game you want to win, and every game you can see the belief and mentality in the dressing-room. If there's a game every three days, I want to be involved. No-one wants to be rested.

'Now it's on to Crystal Palace and we need to go and do the business there and get the three points.'