NEW BLOW FOR CITY AS AGUERO IS INJURED YET AGAIN
Pellegrini returns to winning ways but Aguero suffers fresh injury blow
MANCHESTER CITY’S return to winning ways was particularly pleasing for Manuel Pellegrini after all the talk of Pep Guardiola and last week’s 4-1 drubbing by Liverpool.
Pellegrini welcomed back David Silva as a late substitute after two months out — but then saw Sergio Aguero hobble off after he landed awkwardly. With Joe Hart and Vincent Kompany already sidelined, any kind of lay-off for the striker is the last thing the manager needs.
‘It is not a crisis, it is a very good season,’ said Pellegrini, after his side capitalised on their fast start by going 2-0 ahead inside the first 20 minutes through Kevin De Bruyne and Fabian Delph, his first for the club after a long-term injury.
Southampton, who kept their danger-man Dusan Tadic back until half-time, rallied when Shane Long headed a goal back and Tadic was denied by goalkeeper Willy Caballero when clean through.
Aguero’s departure after 64 minutes dampened the mood until De Bruyne set up Aleksandar Kolarov for a third goal. ‘That killed the game,’ said Saints boss Ronald Koeman.
Coming in to this match, City had picked up one league point in two games and were beaten 1-0 by Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday night. ‘It [this victory] was a very important reaction,’ said Pellegrini.
‘The game against Liverpool wasn’t normal for us. We knew if we wanted to be involved in the title race we couldn’t drop more points at home. The start of the game was so important for us to show it.’
Indeed, City’s opening was blistering. Raheem Sterling and Kolarov had already been denied by Southampton goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg when Sterling robbed Maya Yoshida and sprinted to the byline, cutting back for De Bruyne to net his seventh goal in 16 games.
Yoshida’s blunder was particularly embarrassing for Koeman, who had selected the Japanese player ahead of his regular right-back Cedric Soares, perhaps with Wednesday’s Capital One Cup quarter-final against Liverpool in mind.
Not that Koeman was taking responsibility. ‘It wasn’t a question of tactics or line-up,’ he said. ‘If you make a mistake like that against Sterling, he will punish you.’
Southampton got away with a handball by Steven Davis from Fernandinho’s header but only temporarily. From the resulting 20th-minute corner, Delph’s shot from the edge of the box deflected off Virgil van Dijk and in for 2-0.
Van Dijk hit the crossbar and Long forced Caballero into his first serious save but the general consensus was that Southampton were lucky to be only 2-0 down at the interval.
But such was City’s fragile state of mind that once Long powered in a header from Sadio Mane’s cross after 50 minutes, you felt they might throw it all away.
‘I felt the players were a bit nervous,’ said Pellegrini.
It certainly looked like it as Tadic ran through and was denied by the left hand of Caballero as he tried to lift a finish. The goalkeeper then stopped the follow-up by Long.
Southampton players also claimed a penalty for handball against Fernandinho. ‘The referee made some strange decisions,’ said Koeman, without getting drawn specifically.
Aguero went off soon afterwards. Pellegrini said it had always been his intention to withdraw the striker after 65 minutes but he was wincing in pain after appearing to land awkwardly on his ankle following an aerial challenge with Long.
The City manager then added to the confusion by saying Aguero had felt pain in his heel after getting a kick in the incident.
What was clear was how badly City needed a third goal. It did arrive after 79 minutes and was well-planned and executed. After a series of quick passes, De Bruyne took his time to pick out Kolarov at the far post and the left-back smashing an angled drive into the bottom corner.
The relief was evident and Silva got a huge ovation when he came on to add some late stardust.
Wins like this are the bare minimum if Pellegrini is to put any kind of fight to stop the ‘Guardiola to City’ bandwagon.
‘I repeat, maybe we didn’t have a good week but we are continuing at the top of the able, are the only English team qualified for the Champions League and are also in the Capital One Cup quarter-final,’ said Pellegrini.
Never mind Lionel Messi, also linked this week with a move to City, he will hope at least one of Hart, Kompany and Aguero are fit for the Saturday game at Stoke for the next instalment of what promises to be a very close title race.