Manchester: Pep Guardiola was glad to see Manchester City’s clinical best return as Sergio Aguero’s hat-trick closed the gap Premier League leaders Liverpool to just two points in a 3-1 win over Arsenal on Sunday. The champions were let off the hook by Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Leicester on Wednesday, 24 hours after City’s shock 2-1 defeat by Newcastle with what Guardiola described as an unrecognisable performance.
This time City did take advantage of playing a day before Jurgen Klopp’s side, who travel to West Ham on Monday, to pile on the pressure and jump back ahead of Tottenham, who had leapfrogged City into second on Saturday.
For the second time in a week, the Argentine scored inside the first minute to give City the perfect start by heading home Aymeric Laporte’s cross. However, just like on Tyneside on Tuesday, City failed to press home their advantage as Laurent Koscielny profited from some slack defending to head home an equaliser just 10 minutes later.
Guardiola’s men were knocked out of their stride for most of the remainder of the first half, but retook the lead in style just a minute before the break when Ilkay Gundogan’s delightful lofted pass teed up Raheem Sterling to cross for Aguero to tap home.
In contrast, the second half was a stroll and City should have more than just the one goal to show for their dominance. Sterling was the provider again for Aguero to secure his 10th Premier League hat-trick in controversial fashion as the ball came back off the striker’s arm before rolling over the line just after the hour mark.
A sixth consecutive away league game without a win sees Arsenal slip down to sixth behind Manchester United, who were 1-0 victors at Leicester earlier, three points adrift of 4th placed Chelsea in the battle for Champions League next season.
