- Aguero nets 10th PL hat trick
- Sterling influential in win
- Koscielny scores for Arsenal
- City outshoots Arsenal 19-4
Manchester City put a little more heat on Liverpool with a 3-1 defeat of Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.Sergio Aguero scores all three City goals as the club went second, two points back of Liverpool. The Reds play West Ham on Monday.
Arsenal is now sixth, a point back of Manchester United following the Red Devils defeat of Leicester City.
Aguero is one league hat trick away from matching Alan Shearer’s Premier League record of 11.
Raheem Sterling’s two assists put him level with Eden Hazard for the league lead.
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Man City raged out of the gates, and Arsenal was very much under siege.
Aguero’s goal happened in double the time it took him to open the scoring at Newcastle, the dawdler, with his 48-second header serving as his 18th goal in all competitions and 12th in Premier League play.
He could’ve won a penalty on an ensuing Kevin De Bruyne ball, and Bernd Leno was busy early.
Arsenal made it 1-1 via a corner kick. Nacho Monreal beat Bernardo Silva to flick Sead Kolasinac’s service back post, where Koscielny darted in front of Kevin De Bruyne to head home. Insane start.
Nicolas Otamendi stung an 18th minute shot at Leno, who caught it on the hop.
The teams continued to excite over the next 35 minutes, but few scoring chances really challenged either keeper.
That changed with Aguero’s second, as Raheem Sterling was key to a fluid team goal. The English winger took a diagonal dime from Fernandinho before working a 1-2 and passing across for Aguero to finish his 13th league goal.
De Bruyne then just missed a sliding Sterling with a spinning pass to the back post.
[ VIDEO: Premier League highlights ]100 – At the age of 24 years and 57 days, Raheem Sterling has become the seventh youngest player in Premier League history to register 100 goal involvements in the competition (59 goals, 41 assists). Centurion. #MCIARS
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 3, 2019
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Leno made a fine stop on De Bruyne 10 minutes into a second half that began with plenty of City control.
Sterling was excellent in the build-up to Aguero’s hat trick goal, his cross taking a turn off Leno before hitting the Argentine’s arm and skittering across the line.
Aguero's 1st #MCFC hat trick - Sept. 10, 2011 vs. Wigan in #PL
— Nicholas Mendola (@NicholasMendola) February 3, 2019
His second - Jan. 25, 2014 v. Watford in #FACup
Since: ELEVEN more (Bayern, Spurs, Newcastle x2, Huddersfield, Leicester, Watford, Chelsea, QPR, Steaua Bucharest and now Arsenal) | #MCIARS
