Rampant City back on track – Aguero double helps Citizens rout Palace

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Crystal Palace’s English defender Joel Ward (left), vies with Manchester City’s Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne during the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, north west England on Jan 16. (AFP)
Crystal Palace’s English defender Joel Ward (left), vies with Manchester City’s Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne during the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, north west England on Jan 16. (AFP)

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, Jan 16, (AFP): Sergio Aguero scored twice as Manchester City got their Premier League title challenge back on course with an emphatic 4-0 win over Crystal Palace at a snowy Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Aguero’s goals, which took his total for the season to 13, came in each half as City made up for their midweek blank against Everton when they failed to score in a home Premier League match for the first time in 12 months.

Fabian Delph and David Silva scored either side of Aguero’s double as Manuel Pellegrini’s side recorded a seventh successive home win against the Londoners to go to the top of the table before Leicester’s late kick-off at Aston Villa on Saturday and Arsenal’s match at Liverpool on Sunday.

Palace had failed to score in their previous four league games — their leanest run in the Premier League since 1998 — but should have ended their drought inside the first two minutes as they looked to make amends for a 5-1 drubbing at the Etihad in the League Cup in October

Defender Damien Delaney stayed up in attack following a corner but, from Connor Wickham’s excellent cross, the Palace captain failed to beat Joe Hart with a header no more than eight yards out.

That miss proved costly as City went in front 20 minutes later through the unlikely figure of Delph.

The England international, given just his third league start of the season with Fernandinho still injured and Yaya Toure rested on the bench, and justified his inclusion with only the 11th league goal of his career.

City’s frustration at failing to find a way through a well-drilled Palace defence was just starting to show when Delph cut in and fired a low, long-range shot into the bottom corner from almost 35 yards, which goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey allowed to skid under his dive.

That should have given City a measure of control but just two minutes later Hart almost let that slip when his careless clearance went straight into the back of James McArthur. The ball dropped for Delaney but at full stretch the centre-back, a constant threat from set-pieces, hooked his effort just wide from the edge of the penalty area.

Hart did better when turning a Yohan Cabaye free-kick round the post as Palace continued to push for an equaliser but four minutes before half-time City went 2-0 up.

Aguero, who had not scored at the Etihad since November, saw his 25-yard shot deflected in via the head of Palace’s Scott Dann, the defender’s attempted clearance wrong-footing Hennessey.

City were forced into a change seven minutes into the second half when Aleksandar Kolarov went off with a leg injury, Gael Clichy replacing him at left-back.

Pellegrini didn’t wait much longer to make a tactical switch as Kelechi Iheanacho, who had scored in both of City’s previous wins over Palace this season, was replaced by Toure following a frustrating afternoon for the young forward.

City still weren’t entirely comfortable as Palace kept forcing them back but Toure quickly made his mark as the hosts put the result beyond doubt.

From City’s best move of the match, Silva, Aguero and Toure all combined before Kevin De Bruyne pulled the ball back for Aguero to tap in and make it 3-0.

Palace replied with a long-range effort from Yohan Cabaye which flew just wide but they knew they were a beaten side.

And they conceded a fourth goal with six minutes left as City finished in style.

Aguero was again involved as he led a break-away before calmly squaring the ball for Silva, who scored his first league goal since the opening day of the season.

Results/Standings

LONDON, Jan 16, (Agencies): English Soccer results on Saturday:
Premier League
Bournemouth 3 Norwich 0
Chelsea 3 Everton 3
Man City 4 Crystal Palace 0
Newcastle 2 West Ham 1
Southampton 3 West Brom 0
Tottenham 4 Sunderland 1
Aston Villa 1 Leicester 1

Championship
Blackburn 0 Brighton 1
Bristol City 1 Middlesbrough 0
Derby 0 Birmingham 3
Huddersfield 1 Fulham 1
Hull 6 Charlton 0
Ipswich 1 Preston 1
Milton 1 Reading 0
Nottingham Forest 3 Bolton 0
Rotherham 0 QPR 3
Sheff Wed 2 Leeds 0
Wolves 1 Cardiff 3
Played Friday
Brentford 1 Burnley 3
League One
Blackpool 5 Scunthorpe 0
Bradford 1 Oldham 0
Bury 2 Walsall 3
Colchester 1 Sheffield Utd 2
Coventry 0 Burton 2
Doncaster 2 Gillingham 2
Peterborough 0 Southend 0
Shrewsbury 0 Barnsley 3
Swindon 4 Crewe 3
Wigan 3 Chesterfield 1
Postponed
Rochdale vs Fleetwood
League Two
AFC Wimbledon 3 Mansfield 1
Barnet 0 Carlisle 0
Crawley 0 Notts County 1
Dagenham 1 Northampton 2
Hartlepool 1 Wycombe 0
Leyton Orient 1 Exeter 3
Luton 0 Cambridge 0
Morecambe 2 Yeovil 1
Plymouth 3 Stevenage 2
York 0 Newport 1
Postponed
Accrington vs Portsmouth
Scottish Soccer Results
Premier League
Hearts 6 Motherwell 0
Kilmarnock 2 Inverness CT 1
Partick 2 Dundee 4
St Johnstone 0 Hamilton 0
Played Friday
Dundee Utd 1 Celtic 4
English Soccer Standings
Premier League
P W D L GF GA Pts
Leicester 22 12 8 2 39 26 44
Man City 22 13 4 5 43 21 43
Arsenal 21 13 4 4 37 21 43
Tottenham 22 10 9 3 38 18 39
West Ham 22 9 8 5 34 26 35
Man Utd 21 9 7 5 27 20 34
Stoke 21 9 5 7 24 22 32
Crystal Palace 22 9 4 9 23 24 31
Liverpool 21 8 7 6 25 27 31
Southampton 22 8 6 8 31 24 30
Everton 22 6 11 5 39 32 29
Watford 21 8 5 8 25 24 29
West Brom 22 7 6 9 22 30 27
Chelsea 22 6 7 9 31 34 25
Bournemouth 22 6 6 10 26 37 24
Norwich 22 6 5 11 24 38 23
Newcastle 22 5 6 11 24 39 21
Swansea 21 4 7 10 19 30 19
Sunderland 22 5 3 14 27 45 18
Aston Villa 22 2 6 14 18 38 12
Championship
P W D L GF GA Pts
Middlesbrough 26 17 4 5 37 13 55
Hull 27 16 5 6 44 18 53
Derby 27 13 10 4 38 21 49
Burnley 27 13 9 5 42 24 48
Brighton 27 12 11 4 32 27 47
Sheff Wed 27 12 9 6 41 30 45
Ipswich 27 12 9 6 37 32 45
Birmingham 27 12 7 8 34 28 43
Cardiff 27 10 10 7 33 29 40
Wolves 27 10 7 10 36 37 37
Brentford 27 10 6 11 38 39 36
Nott Forest 27 8 11 8 29 25 35
Preston 27 8 11 8 24 24 35
Reading 27 9 7 11 31 30 34
QPR 27 8 10 9 34 34 34
Huddersfield 27 8 8 11 36 37 32
Leeds 27 7 11 9 27 32 32
Blackburn 26 6 11 9 23 23 29
Fulham 27 6 10 11 43 47 28
Milton 27 7 5 15 22 38 26
Rotherham 27 7 3 17 32 47 24
Bristol City 27 5 9 13 24 46 24
Charlton 27 4 8 15 21 53 20
Bolton 27 2 11 14 21 45 17
League One
P W D L GF GA Pts
Burton 25 17 3 5 34 19 54
Walsall 26 15 7 4 44 25 52
Gillingham 27 15 6 6 53 34 51
Coventry 27 13 9 5 47 27 48
Wigan 27 13 9 5 44 28 48
Peterborough 26 12 5 9 52 38 41
Sheffield Utd 26 11 7 8 44 38 40
Southend 26 10 8 8 33 34 38
Millwall 25 11 4 10 38 35 37
Bradford 24 10 7 7 25 26 37
Port Vale 25 10 6 9 29 27 36
Doncaster 26 9 8 9 33 35 35
Rochdale 25 9 7 9 34 30 34
Swindon 26 10 4 12 41 44 34
Bury 25 9 6 10 35 40 33
Scunthorpe 26 9 5 12 28 36 32
Barnsley 25 9 3 13 37 41 30
Chesterfield 27 9 3 15 37 46 30
Blackpool 26 8 4 14 26 34 28
Fleetwood 24 7 5 12 32 34 26
Shrewsbury 26 7 5 14 31 45 26
Oldham 25 3 12 10 26 39 21
Colchester 26 5 6 15 35 61 21
Crewe 25 5 5 15 26 48 20
League Two
P W D L GF GA Pts
Plymouth 27 17 4 6 42 24 55
Northampton 26 17 4 5 46 30 55
Oxford Utd 25 13 9 3 40 21 48
Portsmouth 25 11 11 3 44 22 44
Bristol Rovers 26 13 4 9 36 26 43
Wycombe 25 11 7 7 32 25 40
Accrington 22 11 6 5 38 26 39
AFC Wimbledon 26 10 9 7 38 32 39
Mansfield 26 10 8 8 36 28 38
Carlisle 24 10 8 6 42 39 38
Leyton Orient 26 9 10 7 41 38 37
Cambridge Utd 27 10 7 10 39 39 37
Morecambe 25 10 5 10 45 43 35
Exeter 26 9 7 10 35 39 34
Crawley 27 10 4 13 33 45 34
Notts County 25 9 6 10 38 44 33
Barnet 27 9 5 13 36 44 32
Luton 26 8 7 11 38 38 31
Stevenage 27 6 9 12 37 50 27
Newport 25 5 8 12 28 39 23
Hartlepool 22 7 2 13 21 35 23
Dagenham 26 4 7 15 27 47 19
Yeovil 26 3 8 15 24 40 17
York 25 3 7 15 26 48 16
Scottish Soccer Standings
Premier League
P W D L GF GA Pts
Celtic 21 15 4 2 52 17 49
Aberdeen 21 13 4 4 34 20 43
Hearts 22 11 7 4 42 24 40
St Johnstone 21 9 5 7 35 31 32
Ross County 22 9 3 10 36 33 30
Dundee 22 7 8 7 35 38 29
Inverness CT 22 7 7 8 30 32 28
Motherwell 21 7 4 10 23 34 25
Partick Thistle 21 6 6 9 21 28 24
Hamilton 22 6 6 10 28 37 24
Kilmarnock 23 6 6 11 26 42 24
Dundee Utd 22 2 4 16 19 45 10
Championship
P W D L GF GA Pts
Rangers 20 16 2 2 61 16 50
Falkirk 20 13 5 2 36 15 44
Hibernian 19 14 2 3 33 15 44
Raith Rovers 19 8 3 8 22 25 27
Queen of South 19 7 4 8 20 27 25
Greenock Morton 19 6 6 7 19 21 24
St Mirren 19 4 6 9 18 28 18
Dumbarton 20 5 3 12 18 39 18
Livingston 21 4 3 14 23 34 15
Alloa Athletic 20 3 2 15 9 39 11
League One
P W D L GF GA Pts
Dunfermline 20 14 4 2 52 14 46
Ayr United 20 11 4 5 37 26 37
Peterhead 21 9 8 4 48 25 35
Albion F.C. 18 8 4 6 20 20 28
Airdrie 20 8 2 10 25 31 26
Stenhousemuir 20 7 4 9 29 44 25
Cowdenbeath 19 7 3 9 29 41 24
Stranraer 20 6 2 12 19 36 20
Forfar Athletic 19 4 6 9 26 33 18
Brechin City 19 4 3 12 19 34 15
League Two
P W D L GF GA Pts
Elgin City 20 11 3 6 38 27 36
Queen’s Park 20 10 3 7 29 18 33
East Fife 21 9 4 8 33 27 31
Annan 19 9 4 6 32 27 31
Clyde 18 9 3 6 29 20 30
Stirling Albion 19 8 3 8 24 24 27
Arbroath F.C. 19 7 3 9 26 27 24
Montrose 21 7 3 11 29 39 24
Berwick Rangers 19 6 3 10 23 37 21
East Stirlingshire 18 6 1 11 26 43 19
Note: Standings read as played, won, drawn,
lost, goals for, goals against and points.

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