Aguero driving City challenge

Palace rout gives fans hope that title dream is back on track for Pellegrini

IN THE Barclays Premier League’s post-apocalyptic world, where the champions, Chelsea, are fighting relegation and Manchester United and Liverpool languish outside the top four, the consensus is that Manchester City only have to hit their stride to brush aside the challenge of Arsenal and win the title.

The problem is that we are deep in January and still no one is quite sure whether City’s stride is lengthening or shortening. Sometimes, they limp. Sometimes, they sprint. Yesterday, with this rout of Crystal Palace, they provided more evidence that they are beginning to accelerate at last.

They got better and better as this game went on and by the end they were looking like a formidable team once more. They overran Palace and their fourth and final goal summed up so much that is best about their game. Sergio Aguero could have scored a hat-trick but chose to set up David Silva instead. It was a style statement as well as a statement of intent.

Aguero’s contribution was another reminder of how important the Argentina striker is to Manuel Pellegrini’s team. City may have a deep squad but they are not the same when Aguero is not fit and his return after injury is giving City fans hope that they will finally be able to put a run together that will take them clear in the battle with Arsenal and Leicester.

‘In the last game, Aguero was making all the movements he makes when he is fully fit,’ Pellegrini said. ‘In every game, he will continue to improve.’

Palace boss Alan Pardew, of course, was more rueful. ‘I didn’t think Aguero was red-hot today,’ he said, ‘but he created a couple of lovely moments for himself. He is clinical when he gets the chance.’

Aguero was City’s jewel yesterday but Pellegrini was keen to point out that he had made five changes from the team that had drawn with Everton last week, resting Yaya Toure, Raheem Sterling and Bacary Sagna for the challenges that lie ahead in a crowded January. Maybe this win was the first sign of City coming good at the right time.

Now, City have to build on this emphatic victory, though. Consider this when you analyse their title credentials: you have to go back to the first two weeks in October for the last time City won back-to-back League games. Time and again, they have impressed and then faltered. They have had some stylish wins but they have been sprinkled with defeats by Arsenal, Stoke, Liverpool, Tottenham and West Ham.

Yes, they have scored more goals than anyone else in the division and in Aguero and Silva they have two of the most sublime attacking talents in the division but their inconsistency has allowed Arsenal and Leicester to steal the momentum from them.

City went back to the summit briefly with this victory but there were periods in the first half when, once again, they looked distinctly vulnerable.

They seemed utterly at a loss to defend a succession of Palace corners hit deep to the back post and they were indebted to their visitors’ poor finishing and to the unwitting generosity of Palace’s unfortunate goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey. Palace should have taken the lead in the second minute when Connor Wickham curled in a fine cross from the left and Damien Delaney rose unchallenged to meet it cleanly from six yards out but, with the goal at his mercy, headed the ball straight at Joe Hart, who parried it to safety.

It was a glorious chance and Palace would come to regret wasting it. They continued to have the better of the play for the opening 20 minutes, causing City’s defence problems but they could not force a goal.

City took the lead midway through the half when Fabian Delph received the ball 25 yards out and was allowed to cut in from the right without any Palace pressure. He unleashed a fierce left-foot shot that bounced just in front of Hennessey and squeezed under his dive.

Hennessey had committed an even worse mistake last week, fumbling a weak header from Aston Villa’s Joleon Lescott and allowing it to squirm through his legs. Pardew had kept faith with him but this was another costly error from the Welshman and his place is now at risk.

‘Wayne is going to have to show me what he can do this week in training,’ Pardew said.

‘A mistake at Villa, he needed to respond today and made another mistake. The ball is in his court to keep out the other two goalkeepers but I need to see it in training. I need to see a reaction from him. I will give him that chance because he deserves it.’

City had another escape when Hart’s kick from his hands hit James McArthur on the back and fell to Delaney. Delaney tried to hook the ball into the net but a desperate challenge from Pablo Zabaleta put him off and he lifted his effort high and wide.

City doubled their lead four minutes before half time. Aguero had almost conjured an improvised goal a couple of minutes earlier, shooting just wide as he lay on the floor after a goalmouth tangle. But this time, he hung back at the edge of the penalty area and let fly. Scott Dann tried to head it clear but only succeeded in deflecting it past the hapless Hennessey.

Despite those setbacks, Pardew’s side began the second half more brightly than City and the introduction of Toure with more than half an hour to go signalled a determination from Pellegrini not to allow Palace back into the game. It worked.

Ten minutes after Toure’s arrival,

he was at the heart of a superb team goal from City that put the match out of Palace’s reach.

After some intricate work on the edge of the Palace box, Toure resisted the temptation to shoot and slid the ball wide to Kevin De Bruyne, who picked out Aguero eight yards out and the Argentinian forward lifted the ball into the empty net.

All around the Etihad Stadium, digital orange boards relayed a statistic to the City faithful. De Bruyne, the message said, had created 64 goalscoring chances for his teammates this season, an average of 3.76 chances per game. He may not get quite the same credit as Mesut Ozil but his contribution is impressive nonetheless.

City turned their victory into a rout five minutes from the end when Palace lost the ball as they camped in City’s half, searching for a consolation goal. Aguero clipped the ball past Joel Ward on the halfway line and closed in on Hennessey but instead, he checked and played the ball square to Silva.

Silva took one touch to wrongfoot Joel Ward and then stroked the ball home.