PEP: AGUERO A LEGEND
PEP GUARDIOLA hailed Sergio Aguero as a club legend after the striker’s hat- trick moved him within two goals of Manchester City’s all- time top scorer Eric Brook.
Aguero scored three of City’s six goals as they devoured Watford to move top of the Premier League table. He reached 125 Premier League goals in 186 games, with only Alan Shearer bettering him by hitting the mark after 155 appearances.
The 29-year-old, who joined City from Atle ti co Madrid for £38 million in 2011, has 175 City goals in all competitions, edging him closer to Brook’s 177, scored during a 13-year spell from 1927 to 1940.
‘It will be soon,’ City’s manager said of the prospect of Aguero becoming their leading scorer. ‘Hopefully we can make a good celebration. Hopefully the club can do that one day. He’s a legend, he’s a part of history of the club. That’s good for him.’
Guardiola urged Aguero to become more involved on the ball and in assisting his team-mates last season and the Argentine set up Gabriel Jesus for City’s third goal of the afternoon.
‘He’s a guy who I encourage to play,’ Guardiola said. ‘Not just to be there to score a goal. I don’t like 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.’
Watford manager Marco Silva was furious with several of referee Anthony Taylor’s calls during the game. Silva insisted Aguero was offside when he ran to head in Kevin De Bruyne’s free kick for the first goal, and thought Jesus was too for his goal.
‘When I analyse the first half, the first goal is offside, the second goal we made a big mistake and create a chance for them to score and again the third goal is offside,’ Silva said. ‘It’s true they had more
chances to score than us, but we had the first chance to score with Richarlison and after that they score offside, the third goal offside. It’s not easy to talk about the first half.’
They were already three goals down by half-time, but Silva also claimed Watford deserved a penalty early in the second half when Kyle Walker attempted to clear a ball but kicked Nathanial Chalobah instead.
‘The first 10 minutes of the second half we reacted well, we had a clear penalty,’ said the Portuguese. ‘I’m sure it wouldn’t change the score, City would stil l win t he match, but it gives us more confidence if we score at this moment, for our team to r eact and do s omething different.’