Pep Guardiola assured Manchester City supporters that he has an "exceptional relationship" with Sergio Aguero and saluted the Argentina striker as "brilliant" in Sunday's 2-0 Premier League defeat of Sunderland.

Speculation about Guardiola and Aguero having a frosty relationship has reared its head on more than one occasion this season and those rumours were at their most persistent following the arrival of Gabriel Jesus from Palmeiras in January.

The Brazil youngster enjoyed a fine start at City and had ousted Aguero from the starting XI before being ruled out for up to three months with a broken metatarsal in February.

Aguero has been in fine form since getting his place back, scoring five goals in his last three matches across all competitions, including the opener in Sunday's win at the Stadium of Light.

Guardiola told Sky Sports: "I am, and I was from the beginning [of the season], very pleased with the performances of Sergio.

"I know when a huge player doesn't always play there is always a debate, like 'why, why, why?'

"But we have an exceptional relationship; we are honest with each other and I said to him when Gabriel came that in that time he was good and I wanted to give him continuity, but in the future they will both need to play and be fully fit.

"His [Aguero's] goals are so important for us. The last game against Huddersfield he played awesome, scored two goals and today [Sunday] he scored another.

"He helped us a lot in our game and our build up, so again he was brilliant. Really brilliant."