The Norwegian international was summoned off the bench by the City boss with eight minutes to play at St James’ Park with the score tied at 2-2.
And the 20-year-old more than rewarded the manager’s faith, scoring his maiden Premier League goal in superb fashion to clinch what was a priceless victory.
Reflecting on the victory afterwards, Guardiola described why he decided Bobb was the ideal man to bring on as opposed to the likes of fellow substitutes Jack Grealish or Matheus Nunes in what proved an enthralling Premier League clash.
“I decided that Jack had been sick for five or six days. On Saturday he made an incredible effort to come but could not finish the training session,” Pep pointed out.
“And we needed a player in the small spaces.
“Matheus is incredible in bigger spaces and Oscar, Kevin, Phil and Jeremy are good in the smaller spaces and the game was more about the smaller spaces.
“But look at the game Matheus had played against Huddersfield [in the FA Cup]. That was really, really good.”
Play the video to watch Pep’s press conference in full…
