The England forward bagged his fourth of the campaign with a goal midway through the first-half to secure a 1-0 win over a well-organised Arsenal side.
“It’s a massive win today against a very difficult team,” said Sterling.
“They made it very difficult, so we’re really pleased to come away with three points.
Raheem Sterling scored the only goal of the game after Bernd Leno had parried a shot from Phil Foden at the end of a swift counter-attack.
Bukayo Saka went closest to an equaliser, forcing two fine stops from Ederson. The Man City goalkeeper also denied Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
“It was a nice feeling to put on the captain’s armband and to cap it off with the winning goal is great.
“My form is alright – it could be a bit better but I’ll keep working hard.”
And he had praise for his team-mates, too, as he added: “It’s always good to have Sergio back, he brings a fluidity to the team and I thought Ruben played really well and won all his headers and is a great addition to the squad.
“Bernardo played really well, too so as I say, we’re happy.”
Mikel Arteta has explained why he chose not to name Thomas Partey in our starting line-up at Manchester City.
The Ghana international joined us on transfer deadline day but only arrived in London on Tuesday following international duty.
Arteta brought Partey on at the Etihad with eight minutes remaining, but the manager wants to give him time to adjust to his new surroundings.
“Yes, we will see how quickly we can make it with him,” said Arteta.
“I think we have to respect that process and that timing for him because he only trained for a day really and there’s a lot of new information and different game models for him to understand, and we have to respect that.
“But I think when he came on he looked good.”
