FOUR-MIDABLE! Aguero runs riot as champions rock Spurs in match that has two missed penalties and a red card
In a game of four penalties – only two of them awarded correctly - Aguero scored four goals, might have had seven were it not for Hugo Lloris and dominated a game in which City chose to rest key men for their crucial Champions League clash in Moscow on Tuesday. Not content with that list of achievements, he also surpassed Carlos Tevez as City’s all time Premier League scorer.
And yet Pochettino’s despair was legitimate given that Tottenham played well, were the victim of some poor decisions, and had the opportunity to bring the the game back to 2-2 on 61 minutes when Roberto Soldado missed a penalty. Well though Soldado played up to that point, you fear that might represent the point of no return for his confidence as a Premier League player.
Instead of pushing City to the bitter end, Tottenham added yet another excruciating result to their recent run against Manchester City: 0-6, 1-5 and 1-4 runs the sequence since last November.
‘It was amusing game for the fans,’ said Manuel Pellegrini, in his precise but idiosyncratic English. ‘It was 4-1 but it could have been 7-3. It’s very important to be an attractive team but maybe it’s important also not to make as many mistakes, especially with excessive trust, with the ball at our feet.’
Indeed, were you inclined to picky, the laxity of City’s holding midfielders once Frank Lampard had gone off injured would be a major point of concern. Still, the brilliance of Aguero made it hard to dwell on negatives. ‘He is one of three of four best strikers in the world,’ dead panned Pellegrini, as excited as an accountant announcing mediocre end-of-year results.
‘I’m not just saying it after this game: It was not easy for him last year when he had so many injuries to produce these kind of performances when he’s not 100 per cent fit. Now he demonstrates how he can play. Maybe he won’t score four goals a game but he will demonstrate why everyone says he is one of the best players in the world.’
For Pochettino there were only regrets. ‘It’s tough to accept the result, because the performance was good,’ he said. The persistence and determination of Lee Mason and the guile of Christian Eriksen gave them a real opportunity to obtain points from this game; yet the rash decisions of Younes Kaboul and Federico Fazio would cost them.
Tottenham should have taken the lead on eight minutes, Soldado playing in Mason, who should have scored from close range but was denied by Joe Hart. You suspected Tottenham would suffer for that and on twelve minutes Lamela lost the ball to Sagna who found Aguero in tight space in the penalty area.
Kaboul thought he had him covered, but there is no real containing the Argentina. He simply jinxed away to create space and shoot beyond Lloris. Yet Tottenham had legitimate cause for complaint, Lampard, preferred to the rested Yaya Toure, jumping over the ball in an offside position as it headed goal-wards.
No matter, for within a minute Spurs were level. Fernando lost the ball to the superb Mason, Soldado picking up the scraps and feeding Eriksen, who fired in off the cross bar. But they weren’t level for long. On 19 minutes Lamela attempted a clumsy but innocuous challenge on Lampard, who fell to ground in the manner of a seasoned professional and a penalty was awarded. It was barely a penalty but Aguero simply stroked the ball past Lloris.
The game threatened to run away from Spurs for the first time on 32 minutes. This time it was Kaboul committing a rash challenge on David Silva in the area and this time the penalty was legitimate. But this time Aguero proved fallible, allowing Lloris to save with his legs. Even then, such is his ability, Aguero almost scored anyway, leaping in the air to volley the impossibly-high rebound over.
A Lloris versus Aguero side show was developing – the Frenchman produced excellent saves on 24 minutes and 49 minutes – but Tottenham stayed in the contest. Eriksen’s strike on 40 minutes tested Hart and the Dane set up Mason on 41 minutes, whose strike required excellent reactions from Hart.
It was on 61 minutes that Hart came into his own. Soldado spun his marker Martin Demichelis, and was clipped, crucially, outside the penalty area. Regardless referee Jonathon Moss awarded the spot kick. Soldado took the kick, lamely, and Hart, diving splendidly to his right, stretched out a hand to save.
Hart again was on hand to parry away a Soldado volley on 64 minutes, a key moment for Pochettino. However, Tottenham do have that innate capacity to self-destruct. Federico Fazio had performed competently on his Premier League debut until the 66th minute when the sight of Aguero rushing away on to a Navas cross proved too much and he and hauled the Argentine back, unnecessarily, as there was still plenty required of the Argentine to score.
A red card, a fourth penalty and a hat-trick for Aguero ensued. The contest ended there. Aguero added the fourth, simply finding space from a deep free kick, this time at the expense of Jan Vertonghen, and shooting low past Lloris on 75 minutes. Yesterday, there was containing his genius, not unlike that well-known Salzburg playmaker, Wolfgang Amadeus.
