Manchester City aware Sergio Aguero holds key to title challenge

• Striker ends winless away run and his fitness is now vital to Pellegrini’s side
• Flores not downcast after Watford’s second late defeat of the week

Posted Monday, January 04, 2016 by theguardian.com

Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero scores the winning goal to complete Manchester City’s late comeback in the Premier League match at Watford.

Manchester City rarely do things the easy way. So often they need to be stung into action, floundering through games before pulling themselves back from the precipice. It was a familiar story here. A goal behind and searching inefficaciously for a first away win since 12 September, Manuel Pellegrini needed two old reliables, hitherto subdued, to ignite a title challenge that has lumbered rather than accelerated.

City remain three points off the summit and, unequivocally, they have a few more gears to ascend. Concerns remain over their defensive capabilities without Vincent Kompany – Nicolas Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala enduring a torrid runaround from Odion Ighalo, particularly in the first half – and some of their flair players could be accused of lacking the hunger for matches such as this. But they rose to the occasion just as a dank evening in Hertfordshire threatened to hit crisis point.

In one sense City were lucky not to be more than a goal down when Yaya Toure exquisitely rifled home a corner with his left boot. While you can drool over his nonchalant genius, the Ivorian remains exasperating.

His impact up until then was minimal but two minutes later Sergio Aguero produced one of those breathtaking moments that few strikers are capable of. The Argentinian’s brilliant winner – he rose to direct home a Bacary Sagna cross from the right – was also a sure sign he is sharpening after his latest comeback from injury.

This was the first time Agüero completed more than 70 minutes since late September and, while his feeble hamstrings remain in working order, City will be fancied to go all the way.

Sagna said it could be a defining moment. "You can feel it on the pitch," he said when asked about it being a turning point. "We feel confident because this is not the first time this has happened, that we have come back from being 1-0 down to win the game, and score at the end. But we have to be more careful, because that won’t happen every time. You have to take the game and create more chances before you concede."

Pellegrini was relieved to win away from home but played down his concern over a dismal accumulation of three points from the previous 18 on the road. "We were not worried. It’s not normal not to win for six [away] games but we were playing well."

The City manager was also buoyed by Aguero’s performance. The striker is still far from his best, lacking the burst of acceleration that we have so frequently seen him use to burst past defenders. His finishing instinct, though, looks undiminished and this winner took him to eight for the season despite spending less than 900 minutes on the field.

"I think we know Kun [Aguero] needs three or four games to return to his top performance and for him the goal was important and hopefully he can go on," Pellegrini added.

Quique Sanchez Flores, the Watford manager, has had City as favourites for the title since the beginning and this defeat, having battled impressively only to succumb late on for the second time in six days, strengthened his opinion. "I thought so in the first leg [half of the season]. I keep thinking the same," he said.

Flores managed Aguero at Atletico Madrid and describes him and his City team-mate David Silva as the two best players he has worked with. Yet he made a salient point when saying Agüero’s injury troubles are likely to have slowed him down. "When you are injured, you losethe rhythm. But these kind of players have a good physique, they recuperate their shape."

After conceding in the final minute against Tottenham six days earlier to lose 2-1, it was unsurprising to see some of the home players sink to their knees at the end on Saturday. They can take confidence from another impressive performance, though. In previous games against perceived bigger sides, Watford sought to contain early on and play on the counter, but they started on the front foot here in an attempt to rough up Mangala and Otamendi. Ben Watson’s corner, deflected in by Aleksandar Kolarov, had given them a deserved lead before City’s smash and grab.

Flores’s task now is to temper expectations. "We can manage it," he insisted. "If you are able to enjoy this experience in the first year after seven years without playing in the Premier League, you are able to manage this situation and stay in the middle, off the bottom of the table."