HUDDERSFIELD
WHO NEEDS Kevin De Bruyne when you have such an array of creative and attacking talent at your disposal.
Manchester City’s injured playmaker parked his crutches and sat in admiration at the Etihad as Sergio Aguero led the rout of Huddersfield with his 13th hat-trick for the club in all competitions.
Jose Mourinho accused City of lacking class for what he saw as disrespect towards him in their new documentary series, but the champions showed once again they certainly do not lack it on the pitch.
If there were concerns about filling the void left by De Bruyne’s threemonth lay-off with lateral ligament damage in his knee, then the two Silvas – David and Bernardo – and Ilkay Gundogan swept them away.
The Spanish Silva produced a midfield masterclass and dedicated his superb free-kick to his eight-month-old son Mateo – who was born prematurely last December and was watching his dad for the first time.
Mateo and his mum were invited into the City dressing room as they celebrated six of the best. It is unlikely to be the last time this season they do that to an opponent. And with Mateo’s dad looking razor-sharp in his first appearance of the season, City will only benefit from his decision to call time on his international career.
One look at City’s substitutes confirmed they are hardly short of creative players. Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane and £60million record buy Riyad Mahrez were included on a bench worth a cool £250m in total. The three hat-trick heroes of City’s record 10-1 win over Huddersfield in 1987 – David White, Paul Stewart and Tony Adcock – were guests of honour and City could easily have matched the doublefigure feat given the number of chances they created. The biggest shock was that they had to wait 24 minutes for their first goal as Ederson made a bit of club history by becoming the first City goalkeeper in the Premier League era to claim an assist. Route one football is something of a rarity for City under Guardiola but the Brazilian’s huge goal-kick left Aguero with only Christopher Schindler and Terriers stopper Ben Hamer to beat. Hamer’s illconceived run off his line helped Aguero, who sidestepped both players to chip the ball into the net over the head of the covering Phil Billing.
Gabriel Jesus added the second with a low shot and Hamer gifted City their third when he spilled Benjamin Mendy’s cross, leaving Aguero with an easy tap-in.
Huddersfield surprisingly managed to pull one back through Jon Gorenc Stankovic just before the break but there was no chance of a fightback, with David Silva re-asserting City’s dominance by curling home a free-kick two minutes into the second half. Aguero then completed his ninth Premier League treble – now two behind Alan Shearer’s record for the competition – with a deft flick from Mendy’s superb cross.
City really did not need any help from their opponents to score but Terence Kongolo gave them the sixth when he bundled the ball into his own net after Sane’s shot had rebounded off Hamer and onto his knee.
Terriers manager David Wagner has raised fears his side – who were the only team to prevent City from scoring at the Etihad last season – will find their second year in the top flight harder than the first.
Conceding nine in their first two games appears to back that up and must sap confidence, but those defeats have been against Chelsea and City. The home game against newly-promoted Cardiff on Saturday will be a far better test of their credentials.
MAN CITY (3-1-4-2): Goals: