Great Aguero should be cherished
Star sparkles as Man City to hit poor Chelsea for six
Manchester – Manchester City’s all-time leading goalscorer Sergio Aguero should be “cherished”, teammate Raheem Sterling said yesterday after the Argentine scored a hat-trick in a 6-0 thumping of Chelsea.
City scored four times inside 25 minutes and added two more goals in the second half to overtake Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table on goal difference.
Aguero curled a superb shot into the top corner in the 13th minute before poaching his second and City’s third six minutes later. He completed his hat-trick with a second-half penalty.
“It was a terrific performance from the team — the manager set us up and got us ready for the game,” Sterling, who scored two goals himself, told Sky Sports. “Sergio is a player we depend on. You saw with his first strike putting the ball in the top corner - you have to cherish players like that. It was just a win and another three points. The most important thing is to get three points.” Man-of-the-match Aguero, speaking about a glaring first-half miss, told Sky Sports: “I don’t know, sometimes it happens. The next one I scored. The important thing is to get the ball and for the team to win.”
On equalling Alan Shearer’s record for Premier League hat-tricks, he added: “I have to continue the same way, but it’s important to win.”
Rampant City have now scored 33 goals in their last five home games in all competitions and have a chance of lifting their first silverware of the season when they face Chelsea again at Wembley in the League Cup final on February 24. City and Liverpool are both on 65 points with City having the better goal difference although they have played one more game than their rivals. Tottenham kept alive their bid to gatecrash the Premier League title race as Davinson Sanchez’s first goal for the club and Hugo Lloris’s penalty save inspired a 3-1 win over Leicester. Mauricio Pochettino’s side took the lead through Sanchez’s first half header, but they were indebted to Lloris for keeping out Jamie Vardy’s spot-kick at Wembley. –