PEP PURRING OVER CITY’S ‘TOP LEGEND’
IF Liverpool have any room on the team bus when they travel to Manchester today, it might be an idea to take the Premier League trophy with them. The title is heading back to The Etihad Stadium.and the only thing to be decided is whether Jurgen Klopp’s soon-to-be-deposed champions deliver the coup de grace for City by beating United at Old Trafford.
Second-half goals by Sergio Aguero and Ferran Torres at Selhurst Park took Pep Guardiola’s side to the brink of glory.
City won the Carabao Cup last week. On Tuesday, they meet Paris Saint-germain as favourites to reach the final of the Champions League.
The suggestion last year that there had been a shift of power to Merseyside from Manchester now looks a tad premature.
Two goals in the space of 83 blistering seconds settled the contest. It was fitting that Aguero broke the resistance of Roy Hodgson’s Palace with a strike as pure as any of the 258 he has now scored in Sky Blue.
The Argentinian strode majestically on to Benjamin Mendy’s pass in the 57th minute, took a controlling touch and then sent a sizzling rocket of a shot into the top corner.
It was only Aguero’s second league goal of a season which will be his last in Manchester after a decade of glory.
Boss Pep Guardiola said: “Sergio is an absolutely top legend. He is an extraordinary player but such a humble, nice human being as well, and that’s not easy to find.the top-quality ones sometimes pretend to be something special.
“That’s why I love him as a man and as a player.when one guy is loved like he is by all our fans, it’s not just because of the thousand million goals he has scored – it’s because he is something the people recognise.
“Nothing will ever compare to that moment in 2012 when he scored the goal to win the league. Even if we win the Champions League, nothing will compare to that moment.
“Today at 0-0, the pass from Mendy was exceptional but Sergio’s control and then the action to score was superb. He showed again what a player and what a man he is.”
Spaniard Torres, part of the new City generation at 20, then provided the knockout blow with a brilliant curled finish from 20 yards.
It was the 700th goal City have scored in five seasons under Guardiola – 157 more than any other Premier League team.
Guardiola has already won 31 trophies in a managerial career that began with Barcelona’s B team in 2007.
If he is still prowling a technical area at the age of 73 like Hodgson, then it’s a fair assumption the Catalan will have rewritten the record books. City’s 19th successive away win was rarely in doubt despite the manager making eight changes to the team that won 2-1 in Paris.
Christian Benteke did force Ederson into a smart first-half save but Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Torres all missed chances before Aguero scored.
And Sterling should have done better than hit a post once Palace had retreated into damage limitation mode.
Hodgson believes his team were vanquished by the best team in the world and one of football’s greatest-ever sides.
He said: “When I see City play like they did against
PSG on Wednesday, you think this is a team with very, very few weaknesses, if any, and unbelievably many strengths. If we are talking about today’s football, then I don’t think I will see a better team than them.
“If you really twisted my arm about one that gave me the hardest time, I’d say Ajax of 1987 – that team of Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp and those guys, which I faced with Malmo. In future I might have to change my mind and put Manchester City up there instead.”