Aguero nets four times to floor the Foxes and widen gap at summit
MANCHESTER CITY 5
Sterling (3), Aguero (48, 53, 77, 90)
LEICESTER CITY 1
Vardy (24)
It’s now seven wins to seal the title for Manchester City – and that’s assuming neighbours United win all their remaining 12 games.
And the sixth match of that sequence is against Jose Mourinho’s team at the Etihad, so maybe it will take even fewer!
This win, their 23rd of an incredible season, had all the typical City ingredients – a hat-trick plus one for Sergio Aguero, a man-of-the match performance from Kevin De Bruyne, some ruthlessly destructive football and, of course, plenty of goals.
Their goal difference is now plus 59, which is 25 better than United, so there’s another point effectively on the board.
The leaders are now unbeaten in 26 League games at home and have scored three goals or more in each of their last six top-flight home games.
Raheem Sterling grabbed the first in three minutes and Jamie Vardy equalised before the Aguero show started in the second half.
His goals went past Kasper Schmeichel with metronomic regularity, starting in the 49th minute and ending in the 90th.
Mind you, the Danish keeper did gift him two of them.
The last team you’d want to concede an early goal to is this Manchester City side so whatever plans Claude Puel had, he had to revise them pretty quickly.
Sterling was ridiculed last week for missing a sitter at Burnley from two yards.
Guardiola said then he’d score in the next game and he did – from almost the exact same spot two yards out, inside three minutes from a wicked De Bruyne right-wing cross.
Schmeichel saved with his knees to stop Sterling’s centre reaching Aguero and the Argentinean allowed Christian Fuchs to dispossess him in a four versus three breakaway.
But the expected avalanche didn’t materialise and Puel re-grouped his men, didn’t panic and waited for an opening.
It came on 22 minutes when a sloppy pass from Nicolas Otamendi and a poor touch from Oleksandr Zinchenko let in Vardy, who charged down on goal. The England striker doesn’t need a second invitation to show how deadly he is and with virtually his first touch he buried his shot into the bottom corner, courtesy of a slight deflection.
Vardy is now on a run of four goals in four Premier League games – his longest scoring streak since he famously managed to find the target in 11 consecutive games during the Foxes title-winning season.
Schmeichel saved from Fernandinho, referee Mike Jones ignored Sterling’s claims for a penalty and Schmeichel had to turn a De Bruyne scorcher round his post.
Four minutes from half-time Sterling must have thought he’d restored City’s lead when he collected De Bruyne’s pass and rounded Schmeichel, but his goal-bound shot was cleared by Aleksandar Dragovic.
Puel switched from a back three to a back four at the break and looked to settle for the point very early in proceedings.
So much for that plan. Four minutes later Aguero was tapping in De Bruyne’s low cross at the back post.
Sterling had another penalty shout when he was shouldered off the ball by Marc Albrighton, but once again ref Jones decided the contact wasn’t sufficient – much to the annoyance of the home faithful.
A couple of minutes later, though, the home side had their third when Schmeichel’s poor clearance was collected by Fernandinho and De Bruyne fed Aguero for his second in four minutes.
The lesser-spotted Riyad Mahrez made an appearance in the 62nd minute, 10 days after Manchester City made a deadline day bid for him and nine days after he absented himself from the Leicester training ground.
The response from the travelling Foxes fans was muted, to say the least.
In the 77th minute, Schmeichel was guilty of presenting a goal to Aguero for a second time when his horrendous clearance from Harry Maguire’s back-pass went straight to his feet, and he was repaid with a delicate chip over his prostrate body.
Aguero rattled his fourth and City’s fifth in off the crossbar in the final minute, a power drive from just outside the box from a pass from young substitute Phil Foden.
That meant he has now scored in eight consecutive home games for the first time and 14 in his past six appearances at the Etihad Stadium.