The Nissan Stadium is more used to seeing the Rolling Stones than the man dubbed the ‘Beckenbauer of Barnsley’.
But it was England star Stones who took the plaudits after hitting the right note in this music mad city, with Sterling and Diaz sealing the win with late second half strikes.
The three goals were the least Pep Guardiola’s men deserved from a match in which they dominated Tottenham from start to finish.
Both Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino named strong sides for what was their last game in the States before heading home.
Kyle Walker lined up against his old club just two weeks after joining City in a world record £54m deal, while fellow new arrival Danilo made his second appearance.
Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure had to settle for places on the bench.
Pochettino named the strongest side available and it was Spurs who should have taken the lead within two minutes.
Kieran Trippier fired over a cross from the right which picked out Dele Alli, but the England star was denied by the advancing Ederson.
The miss proved costly when City opened the scoring themselves on 10 minutes through Stones.
Kevin De Bruyne’s free kick deflected off the Spurs wall to the defender, who headed past Hugo Lloris from close range.
The Spurs defence appeared to have gone AWOL and De Bruyne could have doubled the lead moments later, but shot straight at Lloris.
Gabriel Jesus then swapped passes with David Silva before blazing a drive straight at Loris.
There is no love lost between these rivals and evidence of this surfaced before half time when Alli clashed with Vincent Kompany.
Alli took exception to a crude challenge from behind by Kompany and the pair were involved in a shoving match.
Later in the game Eric Dier clashed with De Bruyne while Walker went in late on his old team-mate Alli as the game threatened to descend into chaos.
But City were the far better side and it took a flying save from Lloris to stop Danilo from making it 2-0 on the stroke of half time.
Harry Kane should have levelled when Christian Eriksen sent him charging through, but the England hitman skied his shot over the crossbar.
It was a bad miss, but nowhere near as bad as the howler from Jesus, who somehow sliced his shot wide from point blank range when it was easier to score.
Chances continued to go begging, with Jesus firing into the side netting and substitute Aguero hitting the upright twice in quick succession.
But with the Spurs defence flagging Sterling burst through and with just Michel Vorm to beat, scuffed his shot into the bottom corner before Diaz added a third in stoppage time.
