Aguero pain for Pellegrini

Man City 1 Everton 0

Sergio Aguero may have shed the tears, but the pain of his injury could be felt even more acutely by Manuel Pellegrini over the coming weeks and months.

The extent of the knee injury the brilliant Manchester City striker sustained in this win over Everton will be revealed imminently following an MRI scan.

Should Aguero face a long spell on the sidelines then Pellegrini will face the toughest spell of his managerial tenure — and one that could well define whether he keeps his job at the Etihad Stadium.

This is a player who, we should not forget, has scored 30 goals in his last 34 Premier League appearances, with 11 coming in his last ten games.

In short, Aguero has grabbed City by the bootlaces and hauled them back into the Premier League title race. That the gap on leaders Chelsea is just three points is down to his efforts.

Pellegrini, for his part, emphasised the virtues of the players expected to replace Aguero’s talismanic qualities, although the manager’s tone of voice suggested he was almost attempting to convince himself of the ability of the rest of his squad to fill the chasm of the Argentine’s absence.

The first sizeable hurdle facing them will be to come away from Roma victorious this week and secure their place in the Champions League last 16.

“It is one thing that a player can be in a very good moment as Sergio was,” said the Chilean. “But I don’t think he has carried us.

“Every big team must have important players like Sergio. I suppose Ronaldo is very important for Real Madrid, Messi is very important for Barcelona but neither of those teams are all about just one player.

“Remember, last season we played a lot of games without Sergio – and these are the same players and the same team. So I hope we can recover from this injury but we have a good squad and we will see how we can do it.”

Another three of City’s key performers — Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Stevan Jovetic — all missed this game through injury.

But there is the feeling that this trio may be risked against Roma on Wednesday.

One guaranteed starter in the eternal city is James Milner, who continued his impressive recent form with a man-of-the-match display against Everton.

“James is a very important player for our squad,” Pellegrini added. “Maybe sometimes he is in the starting line-up, other times he comes on as a substitute.

“But he always gives a lot of character to our team. He is always very useful because I can use on him on the right side and the left side so he is a very important player.”

Aguero injured himself in the third minute of the game when he innocuously stretched for the ball alongside Everton’s Muhamed Besic and seemed to jar his knee.

But without him City secured the points thanks to Yaya Toure’s 24th-minute penalty in a game they controlled rather than dominated.

They were fortunate to win the spot-kick, with Milner going down under the slightest of nudges from Toffees captain Phil Jagielka.

If Everton had showed a little more ambition they could certainly have taken something from the contest in which City, shy of their stars, were far from their fluid best.

But there was a sense, with Seamus Coleman in an advanced position in front of right-back Tony Hibbert, and Ross Barkley starting on the bench, that pragmatism was uppermost in Martinez’s thinking.

Everton’s only real chance was a volleyed effort in the second half from Romelu Lukaku which City goalkeeper Joe Hart magnificently parried to safety.

Martinez was also once again forced to defend accusations levelled against Barkley of diving.

The youngster, who was criticised after he went to ground easily in Everton’s win over West Ham last month, was booked by referee Andre Marriner after he fell under a challenge from Frank Lampard “I’m not concerned, but I’m disappointed because that action was blown out of proportion,” Martinez said.

“Ross went down because there was contact and he was expected a leg to come through. Then he just got up, he wasn’t complaining or trying to win a penalty.

“I couldn’t believe the yellow card. But I’m more hurt by the penalty decision against us.

“The penalty was two bodies coming together and then you see the same action, but because Ross Barkley is involved then he gets a yellow card. It’s so inconsistent and disappointing.”

MANCHESTER CITY (4-1-4-1): Hart 7; Zabaleta 7, Demichelis 7, Mangala 5, Clichy 6; Fernando 7; Navas 5 (Lampard 78; 6), Nasri 6, Toure 7, Milner 8, Aguero 6 (Pozo; 6; Dzeko 63; 6).

EVERTON (4-2-3-1): Howard 7; Hibbert 6, Distin 6, Jagielka 5, Baines 7; Besic 5 (Barkley 56; 6), Barry 6; Coleman 7, Eto’o 6, Mirallas 7 (Osman 88; 6); Lukaku 6.

Referee: Andre Marriner.