City stroll marred by Aguero injury

Manchester City 3 Stoke City 0

Tony Pulis’s side have a deserved reputation for holding no respect for reputations, for fighting tooth and nail in the face of overwhelming odds, but, as has been the case for the last handful of seasons, those qualities were embarrassingly lacking at the Etihad Stadium yesterday.

Stoke brought the best current unbeaten run in the Premier League, a sequence of some 10 games, to the Etihad and, claimed Pulis, fielded four attack-minded forward players in an attempt to add to City’s recent run of indifferent results.

But goals from Pablo Zabaleta, Edin Dzeko and an Aguero penalty were the least City, who were watched at the Etihad by former Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff, deserved from a one-sided contest that was barely deserving of the word.

The only anxiety Platt and his manager Roberto Mancini showed after a comfortable 90 minutes on the bench was the news that Aguero’s injury will rule him out of this weekend’s FA Cup tie with Watford and, far more worryingly, already makes him doubtful for the league game at Arsenal a week on Sunday.

“I don’t think it was a case of damage limitation from the start,” said City first team coach David Platt.

“Stoke know they can make it very, very difficult for you to score goals and we’ve had a lot of teams come here, sit back and defend.

“But you have to give us credit. We didn’t give silly fouls away and allow them to put dangerous balls into our box, we stopped them having a platform to come forward and the goal just before half-time was more than deserved and made the second half a lot easier.”

One tantalising prospect is that Mario Balotelli, now recovered from a virus that has ruled him out of the holiday programme, could return at the Emirates, the scene of his most shameful moment in a City shirt last season when he was shown a straight red card for a foul on Bacary Sagna, having already escaped a similar fate for a studs-up challenge on Alexandre Song.

That team selection issue can wait for another day, however, as City go to work in attempting to rehabilitate Aguero as quickly as possible because the Argentinian forward is currently an integral part to City’s hopes of regaining their title in 2013.

Three times in the opening half, Aguero might have scored — Begovic’s saved in the first minute with an outstretched leg, the keeper dived to keep out Aguero’s strike and then the City man hit the post with a header — and the only surprise at the end of 45 minutes of one-way traffic was that City only held a one-goal advantage.

It came from the unlikely source of Zabaleta who was perfectly positioned as Begovic undid a solid half’s work in dealing with James Milner’s low centre, diverting the cross directly into the path of the full-back who returned the ball past him from six yards.

City doubled their lead after 55 minutes, through Dzeko who put a frustrating first half behind him in a far more electrifying second half display. Yet again, Aguero was the architect, taking Yaya Toure’s pass and beating Glenn Whelan far too easily before darting towards the near post where his cross-shot was again only half saved by Begovic. This time, Dzeko was the beneficiary of the poor goalkeeping, turning the rebound into the open goal with the minimum of fuss.

After 73 minutes, the rout was complete and the scoreline given a fairer appearance as David Silva worked his way towards the Stoke goal only for his progress to end in a trip by Steven N’Zonzi. The infringement appeared to have taken place just outside the area but, by this stage, Stoke had abandoned any pretence at caring about the game’s outcome and Aguero claimed the goal he deserved from the resulting penalty.

“Someone asked me what the difference was between the two sides and I said about £220 million,” said Pulis when quizzed about his team’s poor display.

“For us to win here we have to bring our ‘A game’ and City have to be off it. That wasn’t the case today.

“You have to give City credit. You give me £220 million now and I’ll come back next year and see how close we are then. We’re human beings and sometimes you’re just not on it.”

MANCHESTER CITY (4-4-2): Hart 6; Zabaleta 7, Kompany 7, Lescott 6, Clichy 7; Milner 8, Y Toure 7, Barry 8, Silva 6 (Sinclair 82); Aguero 9 (Tevez 76), Dzeko 7 (Razak 90).

STOKE CITY (4-4-2): Begovic 6; Cameron 6, Huth 7, Shawcross 7, Wilkinson 5; Whelan 5, Adam 5 (Whitehead 68, 6), N’Zonzi 4, Walters 4; Jerome 6, Jones 5 (Etherington 49, 5).

Referee: M Oliver