Arsenal go top with Ramsey on target again
MANCHESTER: Sergio Aguero scored twice as Manchester City outran, outmuscled and outclassed Manchester United in a 4-1 victory at the Etihad stadium on Sunday that exposed the Premier League champions’ weaknesses in all departments.
Aguero volleyed City ahead after 16 minutes and made it 3-0 in the opening minute of the second half after Yaya Toure had put the home side in command on the stroke of halftime.
United’s defence was sliced wide open again when Samir Nasri volleyed home after 50 minutes and manager David Moyes’s first Manchester derby descended into a nightmare.
Wayne Rooney’s curling free kick was the only ray of sunshine for United, who have now lost four of the last five league derbies with City who climbed to third in the table with 10 points, two behind leaders Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
United are in eighth place with seven points from five matches.
The big screen at the Etihad had showed a re-run of the goals from City’s 6-1 thrashing of United at Old Trafford two seasons ago, when the team from the blue side of the city went on to win the title, and those visions seemed to set the tone.
United had already started the day badly when striker Robin van Persie was ruled out with a groin strain and it got worse as last season’s runners-up City trampled all over them from the start.
City barely missed David Silva, who had not recovered in time from a thigh injury, with the nippy Jesus Navas, Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero posing United problems with every push forward.
The hosts’ dominance was soon rewarded. Nasri shook off Chris Smalling down the left and his flick found Aleksandar Kolarov whose accurate cross was deftly volleyed home by Aguero to send home fans wild on a warm afternoon.
City continued to dominate with centre back Vincent Kompany easily keeping increasingly frustrated United striker Rooney at bay, Toure winning the physical battle of the midfield and their attackers playing with a hunger the visitors just did not have.
Rooney, who had come into the game in good form having scored three goals in his previous two matches, lacked decent service from a mediocre midfield with wingers Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young falling short on pace and imagination.
City, whose manager Manuel Pellegrini was like Moyes in charge of his first Manchester derby, were in danger of going into the break with only a slim advantage to show for their supremacy but Nasri’s stoppage-time corner provided just rewards.
The Frenchman swung the ball in, finding Negredo whose header was helped into the net by Toure’s leg for the Ivorian’s third league goal of the season.
Having sealed the title in 2012 on goal difference from United, City know only too well how important the winning margin can be and they turned the screw immediately after the restart.
Kolarov fed Negredo whose cross to the back post was all to easily tapped in by Aguero as the United defence’s sluggishness and carelessness was once again exposed.
As Moyes’s men threw themselves forward in a bid to get back into the game, they created yet more space for their hosts who scented a big scoreline would be on the cards.
Their fourth came on 50 minutes when Navas again evaded anything approaching a United challenge and was given a host of options as Kompany, Negredo and Nasri lurked with the Spaniard plumping for the Frenchman who side-footed home.
United did, however manage to stem the flow of goals, and conjured chances for Rooney, Marouane Fellaini and Patrice Evra, who hit the post, before netting an 86th-minute consolation goal.
Rooney, who at times had seemed like United’s only midfielder or striker, aimed a superb free kick into the top right corner and although Joe Hart got a hand to it he could not keep it out.
It prevented a fourth clean sheet of the league season for City but that was about the only positive for the champions whose manager says they have had the hardest start to the fixtures list of any of the top teams.
They have faced Chelsea, bitter rivals Liverpool and City in their opening five games, picking up just one point from those three tricky matches and can have few arguments that they deserved any more.
Earlier, Aaron Ramsey took the plaudits with the first goal in a 3-1 win over Stoke City which put the Gunners top of the EPL.
Welsh midfielder Ramsey scored his seventh goal of the season after five minutes, firing home after Mesut Ozil’s free kick had come back off Stoke keeper Asmir Begovic.
Stoke did equalise after 26 minutes through American Geoff Cameron but goals from Per Mertesacker and Bacary Sagna sealed a seventh consecutive win in all competitions for the Gunners.
After losing their opening match of the season at home to Aston Villa, Arsene Wenger’s side have won four league games in a row and have 12 points, two more than Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool, who are third, fourth and fifth.
Swansea City followed up a notable 3-0 Europa League win in Valencia in midweek with a 2-0 victory at Crystal Palace that moved Michael Laudrup’s side into mid-table.
A solitary goal by Paulinho was enough for Tottenham Hotspur at Cardiff, and the 1-0 victory took them second in the table, tied with the Gunners on 12 points, but behind them on goal difference. (Reuters)