Aguero treble gets City back on track, United keep up the chase

Tuesday, 23 January 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Burnley, England (Reuters): A Sergio Aguero hat-trick helped Manchester City get back to winning ways in the Premier League with a 3-1 victory over Newcastle United, as they stayed 12 points ahead of Manchester United who had to dig deep to secure a 1-0 win at Burnley.

Chelsea stayed three points adrift of United as they enjoyed a 4-0 victory at Brighton and Hove Albion, while Arsenal were quick off the mark, scoring four goals inside the first 22 minutes in a 4-1 win over Crystal Palace.

Having suffered their first league defeat of the season at Liverpool last weekend, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side initially struggled to find rhythm at the Etihad Stadium before Aguero glanced in a Kevin De Bruyne cross after 34 minutes.

The Argentine doubled their lead from the penalty spot shortly after the hour mark when Raheem Sterling was brought down by Javier Manquillo in the box. Four minutes later, Jacob Murphy dinked the ball over home goalkeeper Ederson to score his first goal for Newcastle and briefly bring them back into contention. However, the day belonged to Aguero who scored his 14th goal against the Magpies in the league seven minutes from fulltime to keep City on course for the title.

Playing before their rivals, United did briefly close the gap to City to nine points, thanks to a goal from Anthony Martial.

The Frenchman blasted home off the under-side of the bar in the 54th minute after brilliant work from RomeluLukaku, who held off two challenges before finding the Frenchman with a sweeping cross-field pass.

Burnley, who slip to eighth with the loss, fought hard for an equaliser and Icelandic winger Johann Berg Gudmundsson struck the bar with a free kick.

Arsenal, who hadn’t won in their last five games in all competitions, struck their four goals in a blistering start to the match.

Nacho Monreal headed in from a Granit Xhaka corner and then turned provider for close-range goals by Alex Iwobi in the 10th and central defender Laurent Koscielny three minutes later.

French striker AlexandreLacazette made it four for the home side in the 22nd minute, collecting a clever backheel from MesutOzil in the area before turning to curl his strike around outstretched Palace keeper Wayne Hennessey.

Palace captain Luka Milivojevic pulled one back for the visitors in the 78th minute.