Four-goal Aguero shows Mahrez how to tear defences apart
No wonder Riyad Mahrez was desperate to join this lot. Another win, another avalanche of goals, their lead at the top of the Premier League stretched to a scarcely believable 16 points and another show-stopping turn from that serial slaughterer of defenders.
When Sergio Aguero received the ball from Phil Foden just outside the penalty area as the clock hit 90 minutes, the young Manchester City midfielder was screaming for it back. Aguero, though, had only one thing in mind at that point and crashed a thunderous strike in off the underside of the crossbar for his fourth goal.
The Argentina striker is now just three goals short of a double century for Manchester City and just six shy of bettering his season-best goals tally for the club of 33. It is only early February and Aguero already has 28 goals in 32 appearances, half of which have come in his last seven games at the Etihad. Do not let anyone tell you this man is past his best. “When one guy is able to score four goals, he deserves all the credit,” Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager, said.
Guardiola’s side now have 72 points and are unbeaten at the Etihad since Dec 2016. Seven more wins will guarantee the title. The Premier League is widely as the most competitive in Europe but Guardiola is in danger of turning it into a one horse show and could become the first to smash the 100 point barrier. When it was put to Guardiola he was making it look easy, he replied: “So far, yeah. I would like to take that question after 38 games. So far we have 72 points in February so it is a lot. We’ve enjoyed the last six or seven months but to be admired and loved we have to win the title.”
This game was over by the time Mahrez was introduced shortly after the hour mark to applause from the Leicester City fans and even louder cheers from the Manchester City faithful. The Algerian had tried and failed to force a move to the Etihad in the final 48 hours of last month’s transfer window and subsequently disappeared before returning to training on Friday.
“He perhaps made a mistake but it’s important to have our best players with us,” said the Leicester City manager, Claude Puel, who defended his decision to bring on Mahrez over the likes of Demarai Gray. “The most important thing is that he came back to the training session, to the game. Now it’s important to look forward and put this behind us.”
If Aguero stole the headlines, Kevin De Bruyne ran him close for the man-of-the-match award. It was De Bruyne who fashioned the first three goals with characteristically sublime passes. The match was only three minutes old when Raheem Sterling gave the hosts the lead. Bernardo Silva pulled the ball back to De Bruyne on the right and the Belgian swung in a wonderful cross that eluded Leicester City’s defence, the ball flying across the six yard box to the far post where Sterling nipped ahead of Marc Albrighton to steer home. Guardiola had substituted Sterling immediately after the England forward missed a golden chance at Burnley but there was no mistake here. Leicester City had barely gained a foothold in the game before they equalised thanks to a terrific piece of centre-forward play from Jamie Vardy, who capitalised on a stray pass from Nicolas Otamendi before riding challenges from Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ilkay Gundogan as he strode forward and fired expertly into the bottom corner. Yet any hope of causing an upset evaporated within the space of five minutes early in the second half when Puel’s move to a back four was undone by two moments of ingenuity from De Bruyne. Exchang-
ing a quick one-two with Sterling, De Bruyne’s pass to give Aguero a simple tap in was sublime, a clipped swipe of the side-foot that swerved past Danny Simpson and beyond Harry Maguire.
Two became three soon after. Credit must go to Kyle Walker for chasing down Maguire, who played an angled pass to Kasper Schmeichel that the goalkeeper hurriedly tried to clear. Fernandinho intercepted, passed to De Bruyne who, in turn, played through Aguero to shoot in off Schmeichel. It would get a whole lot worse for Schmeichel.
When Maguire played a simple back pass to Schmeichel, the Dane had time and options but elected to play a rushed pass intended for Aleksandar Dragovic that Aguero intercepted before dinking a lovely lobbed finish over the embarrassed Leicester City goalkeeper. Then came that fabulous fourth.