Aguero turns hero
STUNNING: Striker scores brace as City fight back to beat Burnley
SERGIO Aguero surely won’t score two goals more scruffy than these, but sometimes that is what’s required at Turf Moor when Burnley’s blood is up and you have to scrap it out.
The Argentine star only played after passing a late fitness test on a foot injury, and Manchester City will be glad that he did. Scrambled closerange efforts past veteran goalkeeper Paul Robinson in either half were enough to complete their comeback after Dean Marney had fired Burnley ahead.
While Marney’s excellent strike was his first Premier League goal in seven years since scoring for Hull against Everton in November 2009, Aguero has now scored 33 in his last 34 league games for City. It is a fantastic, even if these two were hardly collector’s items.
“(Aguero) played really well and moved really well. He had a really good game,” City manager Pep Guardiola said. “From the beginning he was ready, his body language was very good. Of course he has the quality to score amazing goals, but we need him in the box.”
Guardiola will be especially pleased with this win having raised concerns about a lunchtime kick-off at Turf Moor so close to Wednesday’s Champions League draw with Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany.
Guardiola refreshed his team by making five changes, rewarding Yaya Toure for his two-goal comeback at Crystal Palace last weekend with another start.
Sean Dyche sprang the big surprise by naming Robinson in goal in place of injured Tom Heaton who had started Burnley’s last 142 league games. Robinson, on the other hand, was starting a Premier League game for the first time in a four-anda-half years, a total of 1,664 days.
The former England goalkeeper had a hand in Burnley’s opening goal after a bright opening that saw referee Andre Marriner turned down a penalty claim for Nicolas Otamendi’s shove on Jeff Hendrick before Johann Gudmundsson’s low shot brought a smart save from Claudio Bravo.
Robinson launched a long ball high into the hazy lunchtime sunshine in the 14th minute and Otamendi could not get the distance on his clearance header under pressure from Michael Keane. Toure couldn’t close down Marney quickly enough and he met it with a sensational volley from 25 yards that dipped inside Bravo’s right-hand post.
Matthew Lowton then did well to block Nolito after Raheem Sterling pulled the ball back for the Spaniard to shoot from 10 yards in the 37th minute, but it was only a temporary reprieve. From the resulting corner, Sterling swept a first-time effort into the box and the ball took several deflections before dropping for Aguero who prodded it home from close-range.
Burnley suffered a double blow before half-time when Marney succumbed to an injury he picked up earlier in the game, and Gudmundsson followed moments later as he limped off clutching his left hamstring.
The visitors were forced into a change of their own early in the second half when former City defender Ben Mee left Sterling on the floor with a crunching challenge. Both men were hurt in the collision, but while Mee was able to continue, Sterling hobbled to the touchline and was replaced by Leroy Sane.
City went ahead two minutes later with a goal that was even more scrappy than the first. They broke through the middle and claimed in vain for a penalty when Toure went down under Mee’s challenge. Once again the ball ricocheted around the penalty box as players from both teams hacked away and teammates Mee and Stephen Ward even tackled each other.
It ran loose towards the byeline, but credit to Fernandinho for chasing it down and hooking the ball back as it hit Aguero and bounced into an empty goal. Agencies