Manchester City: Why Aguero shouldn’t be punished

30Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero was appeared to elbow West Ham United’s Winston Reid on Sunday. Here’s why he shouldn’t be retroactively punished.

I’m not a fan of violent sports, they just don’t jive with me. Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Ice Hockey, I just can’t bring myself to be enthused by the sight of grown men beating the brains out of each other. Oh sure, there’s occasion when I wouldn’t mind seeing the baseball player turn his bat on the umpire, or the football player take an ambitious shot right off the referees head, but that’s about as far as it goes. No, football is the beautiful game and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are its shining example.

City’s domination, particularly in the first half, of West Ham United at the Etihad on Sunday had all the look of a side leagues above in quality. Passing, moving, possession and control, it’s amazing how quickly the Blues have adapted to Pep’s style and made it their own and it’s truly a treat to behold. One black mark over the day, if you could call it that, was one little incident involving Sergio Aguero and the Hammers’ Winston Reid.

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Under pressure from Reid, who was understandable fondling Aguero all afternoon, Kun appears to lean back and elbow him in the neck, to which Reid falls like a sack of potatoes. The press, of course, were horrified. Several media companies chose to lead their reports with talk of the incident, and it’s possible repercussions, rather than the fact City just trounced West Ham. A few even went as far as to suggest that, yes, Aguero should be retroactively handed a 3 match ban.

Aside from the predictable media faux-storm and, of course, the United fans desperate to see Aguero banned for the Manchester derby, there does seem to be something of an argument there. The angles shown on Sky Sports and BBC Match of the Day look somewhat incriminating and, regardless of Reid’s overly dramatic fall, if Aguero did lash out then it probably would have been a red card.

Except, it probably wasn’t. The most important angle will always be the referees’, and he was standing right in front of the two watching the incident unfold. That the referee didn’t card Aguero is more significant than you may think, as the likelihood of his decision being overturned by the FA is thus greatly diminished. Yes, it’s true the FA does provide bans to players retroactively for horrific fouls, but it’s vanishingly rare that they do so in a case where the referee has clearly witnessed the incident.

Further, more video evidence, as reported by the Metro, seems to show that Aguero’s elbow never actually touched Reid at all. This would back up the referees decision not to act against Kun and further decrease the chances of any post-game punishments.

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Either which way, I think a ban would be harsh in this instance. Aguero isn’t known for being a particularly dirty player, or getting away with shocking challenges. The question was asked that, if the player in question was the Premier League’s “Dick Dastardly” himself Diego Costa, would that change things? The answer is obviously yes. Costa has a history of fouls, indeed, a career of them. Aguero has not.

Further the league loses more, as does the derby, by Manchester City not having Aguero at their disposal. He’s the top striker in the league by a margin and his game is always entertaining. More football than boxing. Though it seems unlikely to me that he will be punished after the fact, one has to wonder why many in the media and the like seem hell-bent on making more of the issue than even Reid and West Ham seemed to do.

Regardless we will likely know the results of the FA’s investigation soon, and, it seems Aguero has picked up an injury somewhere along the line anyway as he has been ruled out for international duty. How much this affects Manchester City going forward remains to be seen, just don’t be surprised if you see a familiar player wearing the blue number 10 shirt on September 10^th at Old Trafford.