Aguero: Rout of Leeds has restored confidence

Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero feels confidence has been restored at the Etihad Stadium and the champions can finish the season strongly.

City’s hopes of retaining their Premier League title may appear slim but Aguero says they are determined to go down fighting.

Aguero and his team-mates produced the perfect response to their damaging — and dismal — surrender at Southampton just over a week ago by brushing aside npower Championship outfit Leeds in the FA Cup on Sunday.

The Argentinian struck twice as City powered into a quarter-final tie against Barnsley with a 4-0 win at Eastlands.

Attention now switches back to the league with City trailing rivals Manchester United by 12 points, with 12 games remaining, ahead of Sunday’s clash against third-placed Chelsea.

Aguero said: “This helped us to do things well and give us confidence for the Chelsea game.

“It will be a good match, difficult, but obviously we need to go out and win.

“I think against Southampton none of us played well and it was a bad day for us all — an error which we hope not to repeat.

“We will try not to lose any more points in the league so we can keep all three points. I think we’ve played well and reached the next round. We need to continue like this.”

The build-up to the game had been dominated by fresh speculation over manager Roberto Mancini’s position in the light of the Southampton capitulation.

But City fans made clear their support for the Italian, who is now eyeing a repeat of the 2011 FA Cup success.

Aguero said: “It was a very good game for us. We are happy with the win and reaching the next round of the FA Cup.

“We played well — from the start we gave it our all. We had spoken about having to give our all in the first 15 minutes. The truth is we played a great game and we hope we can continue to do so constantly.”

Aguero himself has had a frustrating second season at City, having been curtailed at times by knee and hamstring injuries, but now has 13 goals for the season and looked in fine form.

The 24-year-old said: “Yes, I had a great game. The whole team played well though.

“The important thing was to win and we did. So now we will have a bit of calm and can concentrate on the Chelsea game. I think we have a team that can reach the final.”