In normal circumstances, Riyad Mahrez would have been the story, and Kevin De Bruyne man-of-the-match. But Sergio Aguero doesn’t do normal. With the teams locked at 1-1, he mounted a personal second-half blitz that yielded four goals to take his tally for the season to 28.
It wasn’t long ago that Aguero’s future looked in doubt following the signing of Brazil’s centre-forward Gabriel Jesus.
Now the Argentine looks indispensable. With City looking leggy after last week’s draw against Burnley and without Jesus, Leroy Sane and David Silva through injury, he single-handedly stretched his team’s lead at the top of the Premier League to 16 points with Manchester United facing Newcastle on Sunday.
Raheem Sterling knocked in a cross from Kevin De Bruyne during the opening exchanges to give Manchester City the lead
Sterling celebrates with his City team-mates after the England international scored in the opening three minutes on Saturday
Sterling shows his appreciation to Belgian team-mate De Bruyne after his stunning cross from the right wing for the opener
But Jamie Vardy managed to equalise for the visitors in the 24th minute to continue his run of form against the top six sides
The England international has now managed to score against every one of the teams in the Premier League top six this term
City started the second half in similarly rapid style, with record goalscorer Aguero scoring after 48 minutes
The Argentinian then doubled City’s advantage only minutes later to send the hosts on their way to another victory
Aguero completed his hat-trick after capitalising a mistake and lobbing Schmeichel to confirm the win for the league leaders
The 29-year-old then hit a sensational strike from the edge of the area that crashed into the net off the crossbar
PLAYER RATINGS, LEAGUE TABLE AND MATCH ZONE
Man City (4-3-3): Ederson 6.5, Walker 6, Laporte 6, Otamendi 6 (Stones 81 6), Zinchenko 6.5 (Danilo 65 6); De Bruyne 8.5, Fernandinho 7 (Foden 80 7), Gundogan 6; Silva 6, Aguero 9, Sterling 7
Subs: Bravo, Kompany, Diaz, Nmecha
Goals: Sterling 3, Aguero 48, 53, 77 & 90
Booked: Laporte, Gundogan
Leicester (4-4-2): Schmeichel 5; Dragovic 6.5, Maguire 5, Fuchs 6; Albrighton 5.5, Silva 5.5 (Simpson 45 6), Ndidi 6.5, James 6, Chilwell 5.5 (Iheanacho 62 6); Vardy 8, Diabate 5.5 (Mahrez 62 6)
Subs: Jakupovic (Gk), Benalouane, Iborra, Gray
Goals: Vardy 24 Booked: Vardy, Ndidi
Referee: Mike Jones 6
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Manchester City opened the scoring courtesy of Raheem Sterling finishing off a sensational Kevin De Bruyne cross. See more in Sportsmail’s fantastic MATCH ZONE
His first was a tap-in, the second a reward for good movement, his third an opportunistic strike following a blunder by Kasper Schmeichel, his fourth a smash from outside the box.
It was his third hat-trick of the season, the seventh consecutive time he’s scored at the Etihad, and in doing so the 29-year-old became the first Premier League player to score four or more goals on three separate occasions.
Poor Mahrez saw the last two goals from close range having been sent on as a substitute by Claude Puel to play against the team he was desperate to join on transfer deadline day.
‘When one guy scores four, he deserves all the credit. He deserves the nice words,’ said manager Pep Guardiola of Aguero. ‘It was so important. We needed it.
Riyad Mahrez was only ready to take up a place on the bench after his absence from Leicester training over the last week
It took less than three minutes for Sterling to put the Premier League leaders ahead against Leicester on Saturday evening
City’s supporters watch on as their players celebrate a brilliant start to the game against Claude Puel’s side
‘We are strong at home so we always felt we could do it. But in the first half we didn’t create the spaces. We didn’t have the rhythm.’
On City’s unassailable lead, even Guardiola is relaxing when asked about the title, though he won’t quite admit it’s in the bag.
‘I can not deny the distance,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what will happen in the end but we have 72 points in February. It is a lot.
‘We are enjoying it a lot but to be admired, loved, given credit for what we’ve done, we have to win titles.’
City manager Pep Guardiola dishes out the instructions to his team after they manage to make the ideal start on Saturday
They were pegged back within just over 20 minutes of their opener after Vardy managed to outfox defender Aymeric Laporte
Leicester’s players celebrate with Vardy after his intervention to put the visitors back on level terms at the Etihad
Guardiola started the evening by making his point to critic Gary Neville by naming three teenagers from the Academy – Phil Foden, Ibrahim Diaz and Lukas Nmecha – on a full substitutes’ bench.
There was more good news within three minutes when Raheem Sterling banished any demons from last week’s infamous miss at Burnley that saw City drop two points.
Bernardo Silva laid a pass off to the peerless De Bruyne on the right-hand side and the Belgian’s first-time cross bent behind a desparing Marc Albrighton and gave Sterling a tap-in he converted for his 20th goal fo the season.
Leicester, re-energised under Claude Puel, barely had a sniff until they levelled after 24 minutes.
The goal was textbook Jamie Vardy, who scored for the fourth consecutive game to show Harry Kane isn’t the only English centre-forward in rich form.
The striker beat Oleksandr Zinichenko to a loose pass from Nicolas Otamendi, left Ilkay Gundogan on his backside as he ran towards goal, and planted a finish between the legs of £57million Aymeric Laporte.
Leicester boss Puel would have been happy with his side’s reaction to the opening goal as the game reached half-time
Aguero restored City’s lead in the early part of the second-half, meeting a De Bruyne cross to fire past Kasper Schmeichel
Aguero added to his ongoing record number of goals for City by firing past Schmeichel from the right side of the box
Schmeichel kept Leicester level until the interval with saves from Silva and Fernandinho and Aleksandr Dragovic made a brilliant block to deny Sterling, but the second half was a disaster for the orange-clad goalkeeper as Aguero moved through the gears.
Manchester City regained the lead after 48 minutes and predictably De Bruyne was at the heart of it, exchanging a one-two with Sterling and firing in a ball across the six-yard box that forced the Leicester defence to turn.
As Harry Maguire and Schmeichel watched the cross dissect them, Aguero provided an assured finish.
His next goal after 53 minutes was from slightly further out. Schmeichel was put under pressure by Maguire and his clearance fell to Fernandinho inside the Leicester half. The Brazillian’s first touch to control was excellent, as was his pass to De Bruyne.
The playmaker fed Aguero by the right angle of the penalty area and though the striker’s finish was close to Schmiechel, the keeper failed to get a strong hand on the ball, reproaching himself with a few choice words following the bungle.
Leicester sent on Mahrez – said to be ‘depressed’ enough to miss training for more than a week until Friday – after 64 minutes.
City goalkeeper Ederson celebrates Aguero’s third goal as City went in hunt of more against Leicester on Saturday
City transfer target Mahrez finally emerged from the bench on the hour mark as Leicester looked to turn the game around
The game was over after Aguero lobbed Schmeichel following a mistake at the back to secure his hat-trick on Saturday
He was cheered from both sets of fans, particularly Manchester City’s, and was then forced to watch his opponents showing off.
After 79 minutes, Schmeichel woefully underhit a pass out to Dragovic and in an instant, Aguero had intercepted and dinked the ball over the embarrassed goalkeeper for his hat-trick.
He then completed the scoring by taking a pass by 17-year-old Foden and scoring from just outside the box, his rising shot flying past Schmeichel and cannoning in off the underside of the crossbar.
Vardy was incensed enough to start a ruck with Laporte, that ended with both players locking foreheads and ending up in the referee’s notebook.
Aguero takes in the adulation of the City faithful after scoring his fifth — leaving dejected Leicester players on the floor
Mahrez struggled to make much of an impact against City while Aguero showed his class with his four-goal haul
Kyle Walker sprays water out of his mouth during City’s drubbing of former Premier League champions Leicester City
The quietly-spoken Puel was whispering even more softly than usual afterwards: ‘It was a tough game for us,’ he said.
His half-time decision to send on an extra defender Danny Simpson was to ‘to try to find a little bit more solidity.’ Against Aguero, the plan backfired spectacularly.
He’ll hope that Mahrez can now grasp the olive branch having been fast-tracked back into the team having missed the previous two matches.
‘Perhaps he made a mistake but he’s a valuble player for us,’ said Puel. ‘The most important thing is that Riyad came back to the training session. Now we need to put this behind us.’