Steven Gerrard praises Robbie Keane after LA Galaxy thrash New York City

Robbie Keane's bid to be named this season's MVP in Major League Soccer is the responsibility of all of his LA Galaxy teammates, Steven Gerrard said after the Irishman scored twice in Sunday's 5-1 MLS victory over New York City FC.

Keane was influential for Galaxy against New York, scoring two goals and recording two more assists to help his side move top of the Western Conference table.

"When the guy is in good form and injury-free, he's always going to get you goals," Gerrard told reporters. "The movement was clever, but the one disappointment I've got is that he never got that third and got the hat trick.

"Everyone at this club is desperate for Robbie to go on and win the MVP [Most Valuable Player award] again and we all have a responsibility to keep serving him and keep providing goal-scoring opportunities for him, and we've certainly been doing that of late."

Galaxy recorded their fourth straight MLS victory and Gerrard feels the side were good value for the win.

"We've got a good team and good players," he said. "But to get your rewards you've got to do the dirty work -- you've got to play hard and run hard, you've got work for each other as a team and I thought we did that.

"New York are a good team. We had to work them out and that did take a bit of time, but when we settled into the game I thought we completely controlled the match and I thought we deserved to win the game."

Frank Lampard missed the clash for New York through a lack of fitness, but Gerrard is hopeful he'll see his former England teammate back in action soon.

"I spoke to Frank before the game," he said. "I was disappointed he wasn't available to play in the match as it was a great match and great occasion. The good thing is that he is nearly fit -- everybody wants to see him in the MLS, he's a good teammate of mine and we wish him the best of luck for the rest of the season."

New York striker David Villa, who scored a second-half penalty, was disappointed by his side's lack of focus for the majority of the match.

"We trained hard for this game," he is quoted as saying on the MLS website. "In the first 20 minutes we played the way we prepared for this game. We were playing well and almost scored a goal, but then we stopped doing what we were doing.

"When you play against a great team, let's acknowledge that they are a great team, they are a better team than us, they are the defending champions. When you play against a team better than you, the only thing you can do is stay 100 percent focused and after the 20th minute we didn't do that."