Sergio Aguero struck a hat-trick to shoot Manchester City to the top of the Premier League on Saturday as Arsenal scored their first win of the season against Swansea. Argentinian international Aguero took his tally for the season to six as Roberto Mancini’s City outclassed Wigan 3-0 at Eastlands with a mesmerising display of attacking football. The victory maintained City’s perfect start to the season and saw them leapfrog to top spot ahead of Manchester United, who play Bolton Wanderers in Saturday’s late kick-off.
City manager Mancini was purring with pleasure after the virtuoso display of Aguero, signed for a club-record £38 million ($60m) from Atletico Madrid this summer. “They were fantastic strikes. He is an incredible player. He is young and scored three fantastic goals,” Mancini said. “He always scored in his career and I hope that can continue here. “We are in a good moment. It is important we continue to play well and improve our performance. “We still need to improve.
In the first half we had 15 chances to score and only got one goal.” In other results on Saturday, Arsenal bounced back from their humiliating 8-2 defeat against Manchester United in their last outing to record a badly needed 1-0 win over Swansea at the Emirates. An Andrey Arshavin goal on 40 minutes secured victory for Arsenal, the Russian international punishing a dreadful blunder by Swans goalkeeper Michel Vorm to finish from a tight angle.
Chelsea moved up to second place after recording their third win in a row with a 2-1 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Blues skipper John Terry drove a deflected shot into the net to put Chelsea ahead on 18 minutes after Sunderland failed to clear. Chelsea doubled their lead on 51 minutes when striker Daniel Sturridge latched onto a ball over the top from new signing Raul Meireles to score. Sunderland’s South Korean international Ji Dong-Won gave the Black Cats hope with a goal in stoppage time but Chelsea held on. Liverpool’s recent revival ground to a halt as they crashed to an unexpected 1-0 defeat at Stoke.
The Merseysiders appeared poised for a fruitful afternoon after dominating throughout the early exchanges at the Britannia Stadium. But Stoke edged ahead against the run of play on 21 minutes after Jamie Carragher was adjudged to have hauled down City striker Jon Walters in the box. Walters duly stepped up to convert the penalty and although Liverpool continued to carve out openings, including a glaring last-gasp miss by Luis Suarez, Stoke held on for the win. Tottenham recovered from their 5-1 home mauling by Manchester City with a 2-0 victory over Wolves at Molineux.
Emmanuel Adebayor, who joined Spurs on loan from Manchester City last month, struck on 67 minutes to put Tottenham ahead after being played in by fellow debutant Scott Parker. Jermain Defoe then made the game safe for Spurs on 80 minutes. Everton and Aston Villa shared the points in a 2-2 draw at Goodison Park. Mancini strips Tevez of City captaincy: Carlos Tevez’s ‘love hate’ relationship with Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini took another turn for the worse on Saturday as the Argentinian was permanently stripped of the captaincy.
Tevez – who has recently spoken of his turbulent relations with Mancini – has been replaced by Belgian central defender Vincent Kompany, skipper in their three Premier League matches this season. “Carlos wanted to leave for family reasons. I respected his opinion but Carlos is still here because we didn’t find a solution,” said Mancini. “I decided in the summer that Vinnie (Kompany) was the captain.” Mancini, though, said that 27-year-old Tevez would still be an integral member of their squad as they approach the Champions League group stages, their debut appearance in European club football’s premier competition.
