Sergio Agüero hits hat-trick at Aston Villa in Manchester City demolition job

Manchester City reclaimed second place in the Premier League thanks to the leading overseas scorer in Premier League history. Sergio Agüero wrested that title from Thierry Henry here thanks to three goals that also took him beyond Alan Shearer’s record for the number of Premier League hat-tricks, with his 12th bringing up an extraordinary tally of 177 league goals since his arrival at Manchester City in 2011.

In addition to being a supreme predator Agüero has developed under Pep Guardiola to endanger defences in other ways too. Here, for instance, he helped to create both Riyad Mahrez goals while his fellow forward Gabriel Jesus also found the net on an afternoon when Aston Villa performed so badly that several unwitting assists could be attributed to them. Anwar El Ghazi’s late goal from a penalty certainly did not dilute their humiliation.

City were 4-0 up at half-time before Agüero added two more goals in the second period. The only positive that Villa’s manager, Dean Smith, could salvage from the rubble of this performance was that it strengthened the case for using this month’s transfer window to procure players capable of filling the holes ripped in his team by injuries even before City tore more.

While the visitors started here with two strikers, one an all-time great and the other Jesus, Villa had none at all. With Wesley injured and Jonathan Kodjia omitted, the winger El Ghazi had to fill in up front. And that was only one of the home team’s problems on an afternoon when they sank into the bottom three before kick-off owing to Watford’s win at Bournemouth. Things deteriorated from there.

One prospective signing, the goalkeeper Pepe Reina, was at Villa Park to run the rule over his potential new teammates before completing a loan move from AC Milan. If his reason for wanting to sign is to get more action, he will have been reassured. Whoever keeps goal for Villa will be very busy if their outfield players continue to dither as much as they did here.

Another loan signing, Danny Drinkwater, was cast straight into the starting lineup after arriving from Chelsea and must have wondered what he had let himself in for. At least he had an excuse for being bypassed by opponents, this being only his seventh league start since his £35m transfer from Leicester to Chelsea in 2017. An alarming number of his new teammates also struggled to keep up with City here. The home side were helpless onlookers as City strolled into a three-goal lead in the first half an hour.

Villa might have thought luck was going to smile on them when a slip by Agüero let Ezri Konsa off the hook after the defender had given the ball away with a loose pass in the 14th minute. But they were disabused of that notion within two minutes, a lovely individual goal by Mahrez heralding the start of the rout.

Mahrez collected the ball about 35 yards out after Kevin De Bruyne let an Agüero pass run to him. Then Villa were equally generous, with Drinkwater seemingly unable to do more than chug along behind the attacker, who waltzed into the box unchallenged before using Kortney Hause’s body as a shield and slotting a low shot past the unsighted Ørjan Nyland. Rather than wake Villa up, it seemed to render them even more passive.

Six minutes later Agüero took advantage of dawdling by Ahmed Elmohamady to prod the ball back from the byline. It landed at the feet of Drinkwater, whose lack of sharpness was exposed by David Silva, who nipped in to relieve him of the ball and feed Mahrez, who swished it into the net from 10 yards.

Villa deteriorated. Jesus fired just over the bar after a Konsa mistake in the 26th minute. City soon came back for more, scoring their third before the half-hour mark. De Bruyne breezed past Drinkwater in midfield before finding Agüero, who brushed aside Douglas Luiz before blasting into the net from 20 yards to equal Henry’s record. There was no chance of him stopping there. Jesus got in on the act before half-time, converting at the back post after De Bruyne had again been allowed to canter through midfield and deliver a superb low cross.

City created chances to increase their lead before Agüero did so in the 57th minute. Again De Bruyne motored past almost stationary Villa midfielders to supply David Silva, who slipped the ball through to Agüero. The striker held off Elmohamady and sidestepped Tyrone Mings before slotting home. He completed his hat-trick nine minutes from time. Hause gave the ball to Mahrez, he helped it on to Agüero and the Argentinian made no mistake.

City’s clean sheet was lost when Ilkay Gündogan tripped Trézéguet and El Ghazi netted from the spot but there could be no wiping away Villa’s woes.