On Sunday night, Sergio Aguero put Arsenal to the sword at the Etihad Stadium as he fired home the 10th Premier League hat-trick of his career, as Manchester City swept the Gunners aside in emphatic fashion to narrow the gap between them and Liverpool to just 2 points.
With his 12th, 13th and 14th strikes of the season, Aguero now sits 3rd in the race for the Golden Boot, behind only Mohamed Salah of Liverpool and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Having reached a decade of hat-tricks in the Premier League and 14 in his Manchester City career, VAVEL looks back on the Argentine’s most memorable trebles in City’s famous sky blue.
5. Manchester City 3-1 Arsenal (February 2019)
Aguero’s most recent exploits in front of goal require little introduction. Coming into a must-win fixture against a tough Arsenal side, it was very much a do-or-die situation for City, who already trailed league leaders Liverpool by 5 points. However, any pre-match nerves amongst Pep Guardiola’s players were settled nearly instantly, as the Blues’ talismanic number 10 powered a header beyond Bernd Leno with just 48 seconds on the clock.
The Argentine was soon at the right place at the right time again, as he raced on to Raheem Sterling’s exquisite square ball to tap home City’s second on the stroke of half-time, just as Arsenal looked to have been gaining a foothold in the match following Laurent Koscielny’s equalizer. The treble was completed shortly after the hour mark, as Aguero threw himself at another Sterling cross to bundle the ball over the line for 3-1. Game, set and match.
4. Manchester City 4-1 Tottenham Hotspur (October 2014)
On a blustery afternoon in Manchester, Manchester City’s Kun Aguero struck four times as City cruised to a 4-1 win over Tottenham at the Etihad Stadium. With Chelsea setting the tone in the early parts of the 2014/15 Premier League season, defending champions City needed a statement victory over a title rival to send a message to Jose Mourinho’s table toppers. With his 13th minute opener cancelled out just two minutes later by a Christian Eriksen strike, Aguero duly fired home three more, including a superb angled drive into Hugo Lloris’ bottom corner, to quash any hopes of an upset. Aguero eventually won the Golden Boot that season, finishing five goals ahead of closest competitor Harry Kane.
3. Manchester City 6-1 Newcastle (October 2015)
In a remarkable performance against Newcastle United at the Etihad, Aguero ripped the Magpies’ defence to shreds as he plundered five goals past a helpless Tim Krul. With Aleksandar Mitrovic’s goal handing the Geordies a shock 18th-minute lead, City responded ruthlessly through Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne, with the Argentina striker heading home a leveller just before half-time, before hitting Newcastle with a four-goal blitz inside 13 minutes. De Bruyne then completed the rout with a stunning overhead kick from a tight angle. This made Aguero only the fifth player to score five times in a Premier League game, a stat made even more impressive by the fact that he was withdrawn on 62 minutes, shortly after his fifth goal, as he looked to recover from a leg injury.
2. Chelsea 0-3 Manchester City (April 2016)
Second on the list is a hat-trick at Stamford Bridge, as super Sergio powered City to a 3-0 win, moving them closer towards sealing Champions League qualification. In what had been a rather dour season for the Blues, who finished 15 points behind eventual champions Leicester City, this resounding win at the home of Guus Hiddink’s Chelsea was an undoubted high point.
With Chelsea testing the City backline repeatedly in the opening stages, it took three slick counter-attacking moves, orchestrated by the irrepressible De Bruyne and tucked away by the clinical Aguero, to put the game to bed. The first arrived on 33 minutes, as De Bruyne slid the Argentine in to comfortably power an effort beyond the onrushing Thibaut Courtois. A second duly arrived about 20 minutes later, as Aguero latched on to Samir Nasri’s through ball and dinked it over Courtois, before completing the hat-trick, and the rout, with a penalty late on.
1. Manchester City 3-2 Bayern Munich (November 2014)
Was it ever really in question? One of, if not the most memorable hat-trick in Manchester City’s European history was this one from Kun Aguero, who struck ruthlessly to condemn Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich to a damaging 3-2 defeat in the Champions League group stages. With his early strike from the penalty spot cancelled out by goals from Xabi Alonso and Robert Lewandowski before half-time, City went into the break trailing 2-1, looking devoid of inspiration and attacking verve. Step forth Sergio Aguero, yet again the host of the late, late show for Manchester City.
With just 5 minutes of regulation time remaining, City’s number 10 raced on to a sloppy backpass by Alonso, before coolly sliding it beyond Manuel Neuer to tie the game at 2-2 heading into the closing stages. Just as City looked to be heading for a point and Champions League elimination, however, the brilliant Argentine pinched the ball of City old boy Jerome Boateng just outside the Bayern penalty area, before breaking into the box and finding the bottom corner in the second minute of stoppage time to send the blue half of Manchester into raptures. What is it with this man and injury time winners at the Etihad Stadium?