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Aguero double inspires City
STOKE-ON-TRENT: Pep Guardiola extended his 100 per cent start as Manchester City manager as Sergio Aguero’s brace and a late double from Nolito secured an impressive
STOKE-ON-TRENT: Pep Guardiola extended his 100 per cent start as Manchester City manager as Sergio Aguero’s brace and a late double from Nolito secured an impressive 4-1 win at Stoke on Saturday.
City’s away form last season undermined their efforts to regain the Premier League title with just four wins from Manuel Pellegrini’s last 16 away league games in charge.
But they are expected to do much better on their travels in the Guardiola era and this emphatic result suggests the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager will successfully adapt to English football.
City had won on just one of their eight Premier League trips to Stoke and, allied to the usual buffeting by the wind which regularly swirls around the Britannia Stadium, that could have made this a tricky test.
Stoke manager Mark Hughes also likes nothing better than to put one over his former club but City avoided a potential hazard in impressive style.
“In the first half, we played good. We arrived many times in the box with one against one,” Guardiola said.
“We created a lot of counter attacks in the second half - good situations - but the last pass was not good. We have to try and finish the action.”
Jesus Navas earned his first start of the season in place of Nolito, but Guardiola otherwise stuck with the side that had demolished Steaua Bucharest 5-0 in mid-week to all but secure their place in the group stage of the Champions League ahead of Wednesday’s return leg.
VOKES, GRAY PULL LIVERPOOL DOWN
BURNLEY: Burnley forwards Sam Vokes and Andre Gray each scored their first Premier League goals as the promoted club inflicted a surprise 2-0 defeat upon Liverpool.
Liverpool had edged Arsenal 4-3 in a ding-dong opening fixture, but they were cut down to size by a Burnley team whose top-flight return had ended with the damp squib of a 1-0 defeat at home to Swansea City.
It was the first league victory for Burnley over their visitors since 1974 and all the more sweet for Wales international Vokes, who had played 27 games at this level – dating back to 2009 – without finding the net.
