PREDATOR
It’s another hat-trick and it’s another remarkable chapter in Sergio’s story
MIKE DEAN blew the final whistle and jokingly tried to hide the match ball up his shirt. But when Sergio Aguero is in this kind of mood, not even the referee can stop Manchester City’s prolific striker from getting what he wants.
He took the ball home to his house in Cheshire for the second time in a week. Another hat-trick, another chapter in the remarkable City career of the little Argentine.
First Arsenal, now Chelsea. No one could accuse Aguero of being a flat-track bully. He has equalled the Premier League best of 11 hat-tricks set by Alan Shearer.
That wasn’t the only target in Aguero’s sights at the Etihad. He also surpassed the club record of 158 league goals that has been held jointly since before the Second World War by Eric Brook and Tommy Johnson.
Maurizio Sarri won’t appreciate the symmetry, but he was in charge of Napoli when Aguero beat Brook’s club record for all competitions as City won at the Stadio San Paolo last season in the Champions League group stage.
Yesterday the shell- shocked Chelsea manager could only look on helplessly as the same player helped Pep Guardiola’s side dismantle his Chelsea team.
It wasn’t as though Sarri hadn’t been warned either. Aside from scoring home and away against Napoli last season, Aguero also fired both goals in Sarri’s first game as Chelsea coach in the Community Shield in August.
Who knows if this debacle might turn out to be Sarri’s last? Truth is, it could have been worse. Only Aguero will know how he turned the ball wide from three yards out when Bernardo Silva’s cross reached him unmarked at the far post in the eighth minute.
Over on the touchline, Guardiola was unable to hide his anguish, throwing himself to the floor with such force that his hood flopped down over his head. ‘I told him not to do it again,’ said the City boss afterwards. ‘His reaction was a little bit better.’ That was something of an understatement. The hallmark of a great striker is the ability to put a missed chance like that to the back of their mind and make sure they are ready next time.
It helps that opportunities are never far away with this City team. They were already a goal to the good at that stage and stormed into a 4-0 lead inside 24 minutes with Aguero scoring twice.
The first was a thing of beauty. He received the ball 25 yards from goal and surged away from Antonio Rudiger and Jorginho before sending it arrowing towards the top corner. Kepa Arrizabalaga got a hand to the shot but was never going to keep it out.
‘He is a player we depend on for those special moments when he can hit a ball like that into the top corner,’ said Raheem Sterling. ‘ Players like this you have to cherish.’
Aguero’s second, record-breaking goal, was not as pleasing on the eye but no less clinical. Not for the first time, Chelsea’s incompetence played a part.
David Luiz headed clear, and for some reason Ross Barkley thought it would be wise to head the ball straight back to the edge of the six-yard box.
Aguero was lurking like a true predator and met the ball first time, swivelling to turn it past a helpless Kepa from close range.
City’s No 10 had already hit the bar with a header early in the second half when he completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot in the 56th minute after Cesar Azpilicueta chopped down Sterling in the box.
It means Aguero has now plundered 43 goals in 64 league games against the other Big Six clubs — Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal — since joining City from Atletico Madrid for £38million in the summer of 2011. Even at the age of 30, what would he be worth at today’s prices?
He didn’t play when City beat Rotherham and Burton Albion 7-0 and 9-0 in the cups last month, otherwise his season’s total of 23 goals would surely be even more impressive.
Aguero might even have scored more yesterday had Guardiola not decided to take him off in the 65th minute and give Gabriel Jesus a run.
He left to another standing ovation but was back for his match ball at the end. Dean, like Chelsea, weren’t going to deny him.