Sergio Aguero scores a hat trick, and Manchester City has 17 unanswered goals

In the second year of Pep Guardiola’s reign and on the back of a big transfer window, Manchester City was expected to make a much better run at the Premier League title this season. The Citizens appear to be doing just that — they beat Watford FC 6-0 on Saturday. But notably, City’s best player so far is one it was rumored to have available for transfer this summer if the right deal came around.

Despite all his brilliance, Sergio Aguero has been injury prone during all of his years at City, having never played 50 games in a season. He played 48 in his first year with the club and hasn’t reached that number since. At 29 years old, his injury problems aren’t likely to get better, and his transfer value only declines with each year. City aggressively pursued Alexis Sanchez this summer, and there were questions about whether Aguero could play together with 20-year-old star Gabriel Jesus.

But the questions about Aguero’s value to City appear to be evaporating. He’s combined superbly with Gabriel Jesus, and he scored a hat trick against Watford on Saturday.

His first was a brilliant header off an even better free kick by Kevin de Bruyne.

Aguero’s second was put on a silver platter for him, and his third was a spectacular individual effort.

With this result, City has now scored 17 goals unanswered across all competitions, as part of four consecutive victories. And at the heart of that has been Aguero, who refuses to lose his place at City’s striker.