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Aguero 100: The best of the Manchester City star's century of home Premier League goals

From derby-day joy to a certain injury-time winner, here are the best of Sergio Aguero's 100 Premier League goals at the Etihad Stadium.

By Dom Farrell
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London, Sept. 21: Manchester City's Sergio Aguero brought up 100 Premier League goals at the Etihad Stadium when he dispatched an early penalty against Watford on Saturday.

5-0 inside 18 minutes! Man City blitz batters hapless Hornets5-0 inside 18 minutes! Man City blitz batters hapless Hornets

Since joining from Atletico Madrid in 2011, the 31-year-old has firmly established himself as a crowd favourite on the back of countless superb displays and one goal in particular.

He is City's all-time record scorer with 239 and scored 21 in the Premier League last season, as Pep Guardiola's side made it back-to-back league titles.

The Argentina international is the third player in Premier League history to bring up a century at a single venue after Thierry Henry and Wayne Rooney at Highbury and Old Trafford respectively.

As Aguero eyes further honours this season, we look back some of his best Premier League goals on home turf in Manchester.

Swansea City: August 15, 2011

A club-record signing following his reported £38million arrival from Atletico, Aguero announced himself with a stunning substitute cameo in City's opening game of the 2011-12 campaign. Having slid in at close range to double the advantage granted by Edin Dzeko's opener, he inventively set up David Silva's third before saving the best until last. Aguero collected Yaya Toure's flicked pass 30 yards from goal and arrowed a venomous, dipping long-range strike into the corner. It was love at first sight for the City faithful.

QPR: May 13, 2012

An unforgettable moment replayed countless times, both era-defining for the league and career-defining for its central figure, it is easy to forget what a technically brilliant piece of centre-forward play Aguero's heroic intervention during the dying seconds of the season against QPR was. As the seeming formality of Premier League title glory slipped ever closer to the clutches of rivals Manchester United, the Argentine mimicked many of his country's great attackers by dropping into midfield.

Taking possession from Nigel de Jong, an alert Aguero picked out Mario Balotelli with his back to goal. As with much before and after the eccentric Italian's time at the Etihad Stadium, what followed was not simple, but Balotelli managed to complete a return pass while on his backside. Aguero touched the ball into space beyond Taye Taiwo's lunging challenge, keeping his balance as the QPR defender clipped him. "I hit the ball as hard as I could and hoped for the best," Aguero recalled. Cue bedlam.

Liverpool: February 3, 2013

City's title defence the following season stuttered as their talisman grappled with fitness niggles but he was at his awe-inspiring best to snatch a draw against Liverpool. Five minutes after a trademark long-ranger from Steven Gerrard put the Reds 2-1 ahead, Aguero scampered after Gareth Barry's raking ball into the right channel and found visiting goalkeeper Pepe Reina hurtling off his line. The City man got there first and hooked home from an improbable angle out on the wing.

Manchester United: September 22, 2013

Aguero set the tone for a rampant City derby display and a season of contrasting fortunes for the Manchester clubs, who were each under new management in the form of Manuel Pellegrini and David Moyes. Samir Nasri's backheel found Aleksandar Kolarov and the overlapping left-back fizzed over a fierce cross that Aguero contorted himself brilliantly to convert with a left-footed volley. He claimed a second in a 4-1 win and City would finish the campaign as champions, with United in seventh and Moyes out of a job.

Newcastle United: October 3, 2015

The Buenos Aires native's insatiable appetite for goals has never been more clinically demonstrated than when he put an overmatched Newcastle to the sword. City won 6-1 and Aguero scored five of them, all in the space of 20 minutes. Half-time did at least give Steve McClaren's men respite after their tormentor cancelled out Aleksandar Mitrovic's opener, but a brutal evisceration followed. Aguero's third was his best, when he applied a delicate dinked finish on the end of an irresistible passing triangle featuring Silva, Fernandinho and Kevin De Bruyne.

Burnley: January 2, 2017

Aguero was due to spend the opening fixture of last year recuperating on the bench but Fernandinho's rash lunge on Johann Gudmundsson forced a re-think from Guardiola, who sent on his leading marksman at the break despite the hosts being reduced to 10 men. Gael Clichy gave City a 58th-minute lead and the Blues sprung forward again four minutes later, only for Raheem Sterling to go down under a challenge from Burnley goalkeeper Tom Heaton. Aguero was alive to the slim possibilities and got to the ball ahead of a sprawling Heaton, but the angle was very much against him. Nevertheless, he unleashed a powerful strike that clipped the near post and faintly brushed Matthew Lowton on its way into the net. Lowton and fellow Clarets defender Michael Keane were left to look at one another in perplexed fashion on the line.

Leicester City: February 10, 2018

Already with the match ball in the bag, Aguero had one more thunderous trick up his sleeve in last year's 5-1 thrashing of Leicester. Phil Foden picked out City's penalty box animal outside his natural habitat 25 yards from goal. Nevertheless, there was only one thing on Aguero's mind as he touched the ball forward and larruped a strike past Kasper Schmeichel that crashed against the underside of the bar and bounced up into the roof of the net.

Liverpool: January 3, 2019

Given City won the 2018-19 Premier League title by just a single point ahead of Liverpool, their 2-1 win over Jurgen Klopp's side at the turn of the year was pivotal. As is often the case in big games, Aguero came to the fore. He took one touch from Bernardo Silva's cross before unleashing a rasping left-foot strike into the roof of Alisson's net to give his side the lead.

Story first published: Saturday, September 21, 2019, 20:31 [IST]
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