IT HAD TO BE AGUERO
Just when City needed it again, the amazing Argentinian hits wonder strike to all but seal the title
THE machine, t he beautif ul , relentless, ruthless Manchester City football machine, rolled on to the brink of new glories in south London yesterday.
From Wembley to the Parc des Princes to Selhurst Park, they are sweeping all before them as their season heads towards a rousing finale. This victory against Crystal Palace meant they might not have to kick another ball to clinch a third Premier League title in four years.
If Manchester United lose to Liverpool at Old Trafford today, City will have won the crown with four games to spare and nobody will say they did not deserve it.
In this strange season, distorted by Covid-19 and its tragedies and its testing, the wonder of some of City’s football has provided at least some relief amid all the suffering and the worry.
They have been the class of the field, just as Liverpool were last season, and whether their title win i s decided t omorrow or next weekend, it has reconfirmed them as the best team of this era after the interregnum of Jurgen Klopp and his side.
‘City never stop,’ Klopp said on Friday. ‘That is clear. They did not stop and they will not stop.’
They started slowly against Palace just as they had against PSG in Paris on Wednesday but just as they rallied to overwhelm Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and the rest, so they moved into another gear after half-time against Roy Hodgson’s team.
They exploded into action and Palace simply could not cope. It was why Hodgson had said before the game that he was approaching it with ‘extreme trepidation’.
The celebrations from City’ s manager, Pep Guardiola, and the substitutes in the stands showed how close they are to adding a trophy to the Carabao Cup they won last Sunday by beating Spurs at Wembley. If they successfully negotiate the second leg of their Champions League semi-final with PSG on Tuesday, a treble will be in their sights.
Their 2-0 over Palace was secured with two goals in 83 seconds from Sergio Aguero and Ferran Torres but they could have scored five in the 20 minutes after the interval.
Aguero’s finish, a masterpiece of opportunism and class, was a reminder of what he has achieved at City and what the club will be missing when he moves on at the end of the season. Torres’s goal was a reminder of how bright City’s future is.
Aguero’s goal seemed apt. It was his famous last-gasp strike against QPR that brought City their first top-flight title for 44 years in 2012 and now he may have scored one of the goals that has brought them another. No wonder Guardio law as unabashed in his admiration for the club’s record goalscorer. ‘What a goal, what an action, what a man,’ he said. ‘I am in love as a person.’
To add to City’s contentment, their victory was their 11th straight away league win, which equalled a top-flight record. Since drawing at
Old Trafford on December 12, Guardiola’s team have won topflight matches at Southampton, Chelsea, West Brom, Burnley, Li ver pool , Evert o n, Arsenal , Fulham, Leicester and Aston Villa and by an aggregate score of 26-4.
City’s squad is so deep and so packed with t al ent t hat it is difficult to identify Guardiola’s preferred starting team but hard though it is to think of Raheem Sterling and Aguero as reserves, it felt as if he picked what was effectively a second XI here. There were eight changes from the team that beat PSG, which meant Kevin de Bruyne, Phil Foden and Ruben Dias were on the bench, rested so they could be fresh for PSG’s visit.
City dominated possession in the early stages but Palace looked more likely to make a breakthrough when they attacked.
Christian Benteke should have done better with a header from a pinpoint Andros Townsend cross and City, like many sides before them, seemed uneasy when they tried to cope with the pace and direct running of Wilfried Zaha.
Still, it was City who should have scored first. For all the intricacy of their play, it was a long ball forward from Aymeric Laporte
that unlocked the Palace defence and allowed Sterling to sneak in behind it.
Sterling danced past two challenges and just when it seemed he was about to apply the finishing touch, Tyrick Mitchell did enough to make him hurry his shot and it flew well wide.
Ten minutes later, Palace put together the best move to that point and nearly scored themselves.
Townsend and Joel Ward worked the ball down the right with a series of one-touch passes that freed Ward to run to the goal line.
He could not find a team-mate with his pull-back but when it broke loose, Benteke turned and tried to force it past Ederson from close range only to be denied by the goalkeeper’s legs.
City thought they had scored 10 minutes before the interval when Gabriel Jesus lashed a cross from Fernandinho into the roof of the net but he had strayed yards offside.
In fact, the half- time whistle marked the first time in 21 games in all competitions that City had failed to have a shot on target in the first half.
They looked as if they were going to put that right seven minutes into the second half when Fernandinho drilled a brilliant pass to the edge of the six-yard box where Torres controlled it.
Torres eschewed the chance to shoot and lobbed the ball across goal toward Gabriel Jesus. But Scott Dann got there before him and headed it over the bar.
It was only a momentary reprieve. Five minutes later, Benjamin Mendy curled in a low pass towards Aguero as he ran forward towards the edge of the box. Aguero controlled it with his right foot. The ball bounced up and when it dropped, Aguero hit it on the halfvolley and smashed an unstoppable drive high past Vicente Guaita and into the roof of the net.
Less than two minutes later, City doubled their lead. Torres hit a curling shot through the legs of Cheikhou Kouyate and beyond the right hand of the diving Guaita. There were roars of celebration from the ranks of City substitutes in the front rows of the stand.
Sterling hit the base of the post with a low left-foot shot and Guaita produced a stunning close-range save from Laporte to stop City stretching their lead further.
They were making chances at will and Joao Cancelo should have rounded off a fine counter-attack when Torres backheeled the ball into his path but he lifted his shot just too high. CRYSTAL PALACE (4-3-3): Guaita 6; Ward 5, Kouyate 5, Dann 5, Mitchell 6; Riedewald 5 (Schlupp 59min, 6), Milivojevic 5, Eze 6; Townsend 5 (Ayew 82), Benteke 6 (Mateta 67, 5), Zaha 5. Booked: Kouyate, Milivojevic. Subs (not used): Butland, Van Aanholt, McCarthy, Batshuayi, Cahill, Kelly. MANCHESTER CITY (4-4-1-1): Ederson 6; Cancelo 6, Ake 7, Laporte 7, Mendy 7; Torres 7, Fernandinho 8 (Zinchenko 67, 6), Rodri 7, Sterling 6; Aguero 8; Jesus 7. Subs (not used): Walker, Ruben Dias, Gundogan, Zinchenko, Steffen, De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Mahrez, Foden. Referee: D Coote (Nottinghamshire) 7.