Aguero flying high for City
Future looked bleak for Aguero but hat-trick proves striker can lead City’s charge for the title
SERGIO AGUERO proved he is as undroppable as Manchester City are unstoppable right now.
The striker scored three of City’s six goals as they crushed Watford under a purple rampage of pure football to move to the top of the Premier League.
Aguero underlined his class and his quality with the hat-trick and an assist for Gabriel Jesus, while Nicolas Otamendi and Raheem Sterling added the rest.
To think he could have left City if they had signed Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez during the transfer window.
He has not let that hold him back, scoring for the sixth time in six games; if anything it has spurred the 29-year-old on. ‘He’s a legend, he’s a part of the history of the club,’ City boss Pep Guardiola said.
If City had not won their opening 10 games of last season and still concluded the campaign so disappointingly, it would be difficult not to tip them as title favourites. ‘Last season I think in the beginning we won especially for the new manager, new players, everybody expecting good things, some games we won because we were new,’ Guardiola said.
‘Now I think we’re more stable, we know each other better, they know me better, I know them better. We know the staff better. You put the right pieces (in place) for the new players, they come to help us to be better.’
The puzzle is complete: this was 90 minutes of breathtaking football. When City get into their stride, there is little that can stop them.
Five against Liverpool, four against Feyenoord. Now 15 goals in the space of three games and eight days.
Watford have started the season under Marco Silva as one of the early surprises, eight points from their first four games and fourth in the table ahead of kick-off, with a chance to lead the top-flight for the first time since 1982. Yet City were at full speed at Vicarage Road, three ahead by half-time with a haul that could have been double that and Aguero Watford’s traditional nemesis.
His treble took his tally to nine goals in five games against them.
It took 27 minutes of swarming football, but eventually Kevin De Bruyne sent in a free-kick from 10 yards inside Watford’s half — near to the left flank — curled into that area behind defenders that they hate and attackers love and little Aguero had only to direct the header into the left of goal.
Three minutes before that opener Watford had almost taken the lead in identical circumstances — Jose Holebas with the delivery into a similarly dangerous place and Brazilian Richarlison with a similar header that flew inches wide.
But to compound matters for the home side, four minutes after the goal Aguero had his second.
Jesus confounded a Watford player on the left touchline, played the ball into David Silva inside the area on the byline and his low ball went through the hands of Heurelho Gomes, leaving Aguero to tap in.
The third goal came 10 minutes after the first in a devastating firsthalf spell.
This time Aguero turned provider, dribbling to the edge of Watford’s area and sliding a neat ball into Jesus’s path, and he snapped a shot first-time into the left of goal.
Replays suggested the Brazilian was offside, but the goal stood.
Who said Jesus would be the end of Aguero at City? Not at this rate.
If they are supposed to be the past and the future, right now they are combining somewhere in the middle and it makes for a beautiful spectacle.
Watching City play this well is like watching a great artwork being formed; Guardiola the artist, the players every brush stroke.
Watford were out early for the second half, the players put through some short drills over cones, determined to keep sharp, not to give up.
They came close again soon after when the ball dropped to Andre Carrillo on the corner of City’s area and he swiped a right boot at it, sending it bouncing just wide.
But City — and Aguero — did not ease off. Kyle Walker appeared to kick Nathaniel C halo bah by mistake as he went to clear and while the Watford midfielder lay crumpled on the turf, City broke.
The ball ended up with Aguero, who placed his shot wide.
A minute later, Benjamin Mendy crossed from the left and Aguero was in front of his marker to prod the ball towards goal, but wide again.
Silva had a go from inside the area, sending a shot towards the top left corner that Gomes pushed over. The ball was worked out from the corner, then Silva crossed and Otamendi headed in the fourth.
The best of Aguero’s goals was saved until his last. With nine minutes remaining, Aguero attacked the right corner of the penalty area, gliding effortlessly through four Watford players before rolling the ball past Gomes and in off the left post.
‘ He’s just involved a little bit [more] without the ball,’ Guardiola explained.
‘He did it last season the same, he did it now. Especially involved in t he game. He’s a guy who I encourage to play. Not just to be there to score a goal.
‘How many times we play with him on the ball? I like not to have one or two players just defending or two or three just to score, I like everybody to defend, everybody has to play, everybody has to move to try to enjoy having the ball.
‘The ball is the centre, it’s why the players are here.’
Sterling won a last-minute penalty and dispatched it. By the final whistle, six was generous on Watford.