PREMIER LEAGUE MAN CITY Guardiola’s message to unhappy Aguero ... LIKE IT OR LUMP IT
SERGIO AGUERO might have felt he’d proved a point – but the message from Pep Guardiola is that the exit door is open if the Argentine striker wants to leave Manchester City.
Guardiola might have said most of the right things when asked to assess Aguero’s twogoal performance and the strength of their relationship amidst reports that the striker feels he is spending too much time on the bench.
But his praise came with a caveat that will not be lost on City’s No.10 when he digests his manager’s words.
“I respect Sergio a lot,” said Guardiola. “I respect all he has done, what he does, and what he will do in the future.
Upset
“I was a football player and I understand players when they are substituted or don’t play. They are sad and they are upset.
“I try to have the best relationship as possible with my players. I understand completely when they are upset but sometimes other players like Gabriel Jesus and Bernardo Silva deserve to play also.
“If players are not happy with me, that is not a problem as long as they respect each other – and the locker room we have here is a dream.
“I am delighted with Sergio and I am so happy to have him here.
“He is a legend and he will decide absolutely everything about his life – and his future.”
The diving header Aguero netted to send City on their way to a 17th successive Premier League victory was his 100th goal at the Etihad.
Later in the game he was to add to that tally with another expert nod of his brow.
Aguero is loved by the City fans – and is even the favourite player of Guardiola’s son Marius.
But the City boss is running the club from such a position of strength that those same supporters would forgive him anything.
Guardiola might even be tempted to put his players through their paces at the nearby Hyde Road bus station instead of the club’s state- of- the- art training ground such is the prevalence of opposition managers parking their double deckers.
Eddie Howe was the latest to try – and fail – as the home side barely got out of second gear.
Once Aguero had sprung the Cherries’ dreadful offside trap to head home Fernandinho’s clipped cross in the 27th minute it really did feel like game over.
By then, the visitors – already without seven injured players – had added hamstring victim Junior Stanislas to their casualty list.
And when Raheem Sterling marched onto Aguero’s flick to ram home his 16th goal of the season eight minutes into the second half, it became only a question of how many City would score.
Aguero took his tally for the season to 15 in the 79th minute when he rose to give substitute Bernardo Silva’s brilliant cross the finish it deserved.
Rout
And substitute Danilo completed the rout five minutes from time with a sidefoot finish from Sterling’s pass.
It means City are the first topflight team to score 100 league goals in a calendar year since Liverpool in 1982.
Liverpool scored 106; City are now on 101 in eight fewer games.
“I think anyone is beatable,” said Howe, who has more to worry about than whether City will emulate Arsenal’s Invincibles.
Bournemouth never looked capable of adding to their miserable season’s goal tally of 15.
A seventh game without a win has taken them into the bottom three.
Howe said: “We’ve had an incredibly difficult run of fixtures, but we’re through that now and we’ve got to focus on the games we’ve got coming up.
“Our plan was to stay in the game as long as we could and then maybe have a go later on.
“The first goal came from our mistake – which is disappointing – and then the second so soon after half-time was a killer.”