BURNLEY, ENGLAND -- Pep Guardiola has backed Raheem Sterling to bounce back quickly with a goal after his horrible miss in Manchester City's 1-1 draw with Burnley.
City were leading through Danilo's 22nd-minute strike but missed a number of chances to finish off the game with Sterling being the worst of them, when he failed to find the target from two yards.
The forward, who has 19 goals this season, was substituted shortly after but Guardiola insisted that his miss was not the reason for the switch.
"No I didn't change him for that reason," he told a news conference. "No, it is football. [On the] next day he is going to score a goal.
"He scored in the 96th minute against Southampton -- today he missed one chance. That is football. That can happen.
"It is not the first time people miss one chance but it was not just Raheem, it was a lot this game. When we arrived for the last action and we were not able to do that."
Burnley pushed forward in the final 20 minutes and snatched an 82nd minute equaliser when Johann Gudmundsson finished Matthew Lowton's cross.
Despite dropping points for just fourth time in the Premier League this season, Guardiola was proud of side's performance.
"It was an outstanding performance," he added. "We are sad for the dropped two points but to come here and play the way we played is almost impossible.
"We controlled the long balls. We made an amazing build-up. To do it against Burnley, it is so complicated.
"We played with a huge personality. In the top level, you have to score goals and we were not able to do that."
Sean Dyche was delighted with the point but joked that he was disappointed that their run without a victory has now extended to eight games.
His side have lost twice to City at the Etihad Stadium -- in the Premier League and FA Cup -- but he changed his gameplan to try to upset City's rhythm and got his reward with an impressive final 20 minutes.
He said: "It's a very good point. We have lost to these twice and done quite well, believe it or not, but we had to change something so we decided to go with two up front -- we wanted to go long and strong.
"It didn't work first half but we stayed in it and that's an important thing. Second half, they came out and controlled it in the first 15 minutes but then we grew into the game.
"Their keeper makes an unbelievable save and then there is an unbelievable miss and that changed the feeling [in the stadium].
"It was a fantastic goal. I'm very pleased to take a point against them -- but, of course, another game without a win."