Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has vowed to make Sergio Aguero an even better player.
The Argentine striker scored two goals on his return to City colors as the visitors made it 10 straight wins in league and cup soccer this season with a 3-1 victory away to Swansea City on Saturday.
Having missed the previous three games due to suspension, Aguero took only eight minutes to give the visitors the lead.
Photo: AFP
Fernando Llorente leveled five minutes later, but Aguero’s penalty, in the 65th minute, and a third from Raheem Sterling, 13 minutes from time, made the game safe. It is now six straight English Premier League wins for Guardiola.
The Spaniard was happy with the win, but still wants more from his players, including Aguero, who has now scored 11 times in six games so far this season.
“I want to congratulate him on his performance, especially for the first goal,” Guardiola said. “I am so happy for him, but I think he can play better and I will try to tell him. He has great ability and in the box there is nothing I can do to help him, but maybe I can help him develop, like keeping the ball and helping the rest of the team.”
Swansea, beaten by Guardiola’s men in the League Cup on Wednesday last week, certainly gave Manchester City a tougher test than their lowly league position suggested was possible.
“I was not surprised by Swansea. It is not easy to play twice a week with the same team, so both teams changed, but they have good players and the goal they scored was very good,” Guardiola said. “But I thought we did well with the ball. We were able to attack behind the midfield line and that was what I wanted. We played really well in the second half and we created some good chances. I think we deserved to win. It was an important win and now we have two games before the break.”
The only setback for the league leaders was the sight of Kevin de Bruyne limping off in the second half.
“Kevin is injured, I think. It is a pity. From the way he reacted, it looked like a muscle injury,” Guardiola said. “We will have to wait and see when we get back to Manchester. He will be going in to see the doctor on Sunday.”
The pressure is certainly mounting on Swansea boss Francesco Guidolin, for whom this was a fourth league defeat of the season.
“The performance was good in my opinion. Manchester City is the best team in the Premier League, but I thought my team played at the same level as them,” Guidolin said. “I am proud of my players, but, of course, I am disappointed with the result.”
“Before the penalty we had a good chance to score and I thought we deserved to score,” he said. “It had been a good game for us up until then, but then we conceded and we lost the game. However, if we play this way in the future, we will be OK.”
On the penalty, awarded by referee Neil Swarbrick at a crucial time of the game, Guidolin said: “I am not one to judge the referee. The referee is the judge. My opinion is not important.”
“I said thanks to the referee after the game because that is the attitude I have towards referees,” he said.
It certainly does not get any easier for the Swans. They play Liverpool next weekend and then Arsenal on Oct. 15 at the Emirates Stadium in London.
“Our fixtures are not easy in this period and in terms of our results, we are not in a very good moment, but our performance on Wednesday and today has been great,” Guidolin said. “I don’t know what the chairman or the owner think, but that is not important. What is important for me is that I work hard with the players and have a good relationship with them.”
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