Aguero kept waiting as Man City stays on top

LONDON: Sergio Aguero was left waiting to become Manchester City’s outright all- time leading goal- scorer as his side remained five points clear at the top of the Premier League table on Saturday ( Sunday in Manila).

Aguero was named on the bench as City saw off West Bromwich Albion 3-2, having failed to surpass the club record of 177 goals he shares with Eric Brook during a midweek League Cup penalty shoot-out win over Championship side Wolves.

There were three goals in a frantic five-minute spell at The Hawthorns on Saturday.

Leroy Sane produced a stunning strike to give City a 10th- minute lead only for West Brom’s Jay Rodriguez to equalise soon afterwards.

But come the 15th minute, City was 2- 1 up after Fernandinho let fly with a speculative shot that deflected off Gareth Barry and went in off the post.

City substitute Raheem Sterling gave the visitors a two-goal lead with a close-range finish in the 64th minute only for the Baggies’ to pull a goal back late on through Matt Phillips after a defensive blunder.

Second-placed Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur started the day level on points but Jose Mourinho’s men edged ahead after substitute Anthony Martial’s goal nine minutes from time gave them a 1-0 win over a Spurs side missing injured England striker Harry Kane.

“Today, every ball looked like the last ball of their careers,” said United manager Mourinho, who slammed his players’ attitude following a shock 2- 1 loss to Huddersfield last week.

This was Spurs’ second defeat of the week after their League Cup loss to London rivals West Ham.

“It was unlucky that in the last 10 minutes we conceded our goal,” said Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino.

“It was our mistake,” he added after his defence failed to deal with a long clearance from United goalkeeper David De Gea that Romelu Lukaku headed on to Martial.