Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he’s happy to have Kevin De Bruyne back to his best form after an injury-hit 2018-19 season.

De Bruyne struggled through last season, managing just two goals and two assists in his 19 Premier League appearances.

But in 2019-20, the Belgian already has two goals and seven assists as he’s put any injury concerns behind him in a strong start to the season.

De Bruyne’s latest star showing came on Saturday as he tallied a goal and two assists in an 8-0 thrashing of Watford.

The 28-year-old left his manager singing his praises after another fine display.

‘Kevin sometimes is a special player,’ Guardiola told Man City’s official website.

‘He sees things others cannot see on the pitch, or even off the pitch. Sometimes he frustrates me when he loses simple balls. How can he lose it with his quality?

‘But he is an incredibly talented player, with his vision up front and the quality of his shooting.

‘With Kevin it depends on his mood. Sometimes it is low but when he is happy, he’s an incredible, fantastic player.

‘We missed him a lot. We had an incredible season, winning four titles, but we missed him a lot.

‘He’s a special player. I’m happy he is here.’

City suffered a demoralising defeat by Norwich City last weekend, but rebounded with wins over Shakhtar Donetsk and Watford by a combined score of 11-0.

Guardiola was pleased to see City come back from the defeat at Norwich, saying that they ‘suffered’ after that loss.

‘Football, sport, life, has bad moments,’ Guardiola said. ‘It’s how you handle them and react to it.

‘It’s easy to play at 5-0. I could have played. That’s not the point. The point is in the bad moments.

‘I knew what would happen in Kharkiv and today. I didn’t want to be presumptuous, but I knew it because they’ve done it for two seasons.

‘I’m close to them. I saw after Norwich how they didn’t talk too much. They were sad and I liked that.

‘On the coach and the plane they didn’t talk. That’s a good sign. They suffered and that is good.’