MAN CITY 3, ARSENAL 1
Is there any limit to Sergio Aguero’s extraordinary goalscoring exploits?
The Argentine striker, already City’s all-time record goalscorer, hit his 14th hat trick for the club in a comfortable win against top-six side Arsenal at the Etihad.
It was also Aguero’s 10th treble in the Premier League and he is only one behind record holder Alan Shearer.
What was also incredible about Aguero’s latest hat trick is the total distance from goal was about nine yards as all were netted from inside the six-yard box.
Aguero was at his predatory best sniffing out chances as he took his season’s total to 20 as City moved to within two points of Liverpool who play tomorrow at West Ham.
It was a routine win as City provided a positive reaction to the midweek defeat at Newcastle United as they made it four straight top-flight wins against Arsenal for the first time since 1937.
They played with their usual swagger and, but for the excellent goalkeeping of Bernd Leno, would have won by a wider margin.
And such was their control that Arsenal didn’t register a single goal attempt in the second period.
It was a mystifying team selection from Arsenal manager Unai Emery as he played with strikers Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, but they had no creativity with Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey not selected.
Embed from Getty ImagesCity manager Pep Guardiola was delighted with the reaction to midweek, saying: “We didn’t recognise ourselves in the previous game at Newcastle, but today we came back.
“There was no fight to score a second goal at Newcastle and that was a big lesson we learned in the last four or five days.”
Guardiola added he would prefer to be in Liverpool’s position rather than having to chase.
He explained City have no influence on Liverpool, explaining: “We must try and make a good performance and it is important to be ourselves.”
Guardiola was delighted with Aguero saying he had always been delighted with him.
“A lot of people said in the first year I was here that I wasn’t friends with Sergio, but I have always been delighted with him, and not because today he scored three goals,” he said.
City made three changes to the side that started the midweek match at Newcastle United where they surprisingly lost
There were recalls for Nicolas Otamendi in defence along with Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva in midfield.
The players to lose out after the loss at St James Park were Danilo, John Stones and Leroy Sane.
Arsenal had new loan signing Denis Suarez, from Barcelona and a former City youngster, on the bench. He made his debut late on.
City started with midfielder Fernandinho at centre back while Gundogan assumed the Brazilian’s place in the middle.
City reacted positively to the midweek loss taking the lead after only 46 seconds after a whirlwind opening.
Arsenal failed to clear their defensive lines and left-back Aymeric Laporte cross for Aguero to find the net with a low, diving header from six yards.
The Gunners would have been three down inside five minutes as they were denied a penalty when Shkodran Mustafi clearly hauled back Aguero and Raheem Sterling forced a fine, flying save from Bernd Leno.
Laporte had a header ruled out for offside as it remained one-way traffic.
Then completely against the run of play, Arsenal equalised in the 11th minute through a flying header from Koscielny after Nacho Monreal flicked on a corner from Lucas Torreira.
City regained the lead in the 44th minute when Aguero found the net for a second time.
A neat interchange of passes between Sterling and Gundogan opened the Arsenal defence as Sterling crossed for the simplest of tap ins at the far post from a couple of yards.
City’s pursuit of a third goal continued and early in the second half Kevin De Bruyne had two decent goal attempts, the first bringing a decent save from Leno.
Aguero completed his hat trick just after the hour with Arsenal claiming handball.
Sterling was the provider with a weaving run on the left before his cross was parried by Leno and Aguero, sliding in, scored with the ball coming off his side with a suspicion of an arm as well.
It was his 10th goal in his last 12 games against Arsenal and 20th of the season.
Aguero came close to a fourth goal when his deflected shot was well kept out by Leno.
City’s first change in the 81st minute saw Aguero, who had picked up a knock to his head, replaced by Gabriel Jesus.
David Silva forced a fine save from Leno as there was no easing up by City.
De Bruyne made way for Riyad Mahrez with two minutes left as Guardiola was clearly looking ahead to the midweek visit to Everton.