Saturday will go down as a win for Manchester City against Everton, but for City and their fans, the match will be remembered as a loss.
The match had barely begun before Sergio Aguero was on the ground grabbing his knee in pain. Aguero has had to deal with a handful of injuries during his time in England, but none may be as costly as the knock he picked up on Saturday.
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With the victory over Everton, coupled with Chelsea’s first loss of the season, Manchester City moved to within three points of the league leaders. The question now is how long can the defending champions continue to track down Chelsea with Kun Aguero watching from the stands?
A firm timeline for the return of Aguero has not been given, but City is hopeful he can return within a month. But recovery from knee injuries, specifically ones related to ligament damage, quite often seem to take much longer than just a handful of weeks.
So what does this mean for the Cityzens?
To be blunt; this is VERY bad news for the blue side of Manchester.
Sergio Aguero is locked and loaded to break the Premier League goal scoring record. With 14 goals in 15 matches so far, Aguero is on pace to put 35 footballs in the back of the net and break the current mark of 31.
In Saturday’s match against Everton, which for all intents and purposes, Aguero was not a part of, Manchester City looked subpar. They defeated the Toffees 1-0, but one can argue, myself included, that City did not deserve the goal they scored due to a penalty.
Kun Aguero has not only been the best player for Manchester City this season, he has elevated himself to the status of the best player in the entire league. Where would City be without his brilliance?
The Cityzens have scored 32 goals this season, take away the 14 from Kun Aguero and they are left with just 18. They have given up 14 goals, leaving them with a goal difference of only four. A goal difference which would move them back to seventh in the table.
Man City Square
But that is only taking into account the Premier League. What about Champions League? Where would City have been if Kun Aguero had not single-handedly defeated Bayern Munich? Their hopes of making it out of the group would be hanging on my the thinnest of strings.
Which brings us to Wednesday’s final group stage match in the Champions League against Roma. City need to defeat the Italian side and get some help from Bayern Munich to make it to the knockout stage.
Edin Dzeko should be available to play in Aguero’s position, but will that be enough? There is also hope that David Silva could make a return. These additions may help City, but there is no denying that they will be at a disadvantage without Aguero.
Manuel Pellegrini has remained hopeful, but of course he has, he’s the Manager.
"“It is one thing that a player can be in a very good moment as Sergio was until today but I don’t think he has carried us. We have beaten a very difficult team like Everton without Sergio, without Silva, without Kompany, without Jovetic and with Dzeko only able to play 20 minutes.“Every big team must have important players like Sergio. I suppose Ronaldo is very important for Real Madrid, Messi is very important for Barcelona but neither of those teams are all about just one player. The confidence is very high in this moment for the whole team but the injuries mean it is not the best way to approach such an important game as Roma. But I have confidence in this team and I hope we will do it in the same way that we have won these last five games.”"
City’s poor start to the season left them with a gigantic mountain to climb in both the Premier and Champions Leagues. And right as the summit of the mountain was in sight, Aguero’s injury has sent them rolling back down the mountain.
Speaking of rolling down a mountain…