City maintained the pressure on league leaders Chelsea with an Aguero inspired performance at the Stadium Of Light last night. A bit of magic and a brace of goals for Aguero saw City come from a goal down to eventually romp to a 1-4 win.

Vincent Kompany's hamstring injury and Eliaquim Mangala's suspension saw City line up with Dedryck Boyata and Martin Demichelis at centre-back, and they fell behind in the 19th minute when Connor Wickham got ahead of Pablo Zabaleta to score.

Aguero though was in rampant form and within two minutes he nutmegged Sebastian Coates before lashing the ball in.

The Argentinians equaliser was the signal for City to up their game, and Sunderland to fade quietly into the background.

Aguero's exquisite flick from Yaya Toure's pass then set up Stevan Jovetic, who found the gap between Pantilimon's legs and City were ahead on 39 minutes.

Sunderland were struggling to create much in the City half but they still came close in first half injury time when a Larsson corner found the head of Rodwell and in the resulting melee the hosts had a penalty shout for handball against Fernandinho turned down.

Any hopes of Sunderland forcing their way back into the contest were extinguished when Zabaleta claimed City's third goal – his first appearance on the scoresheet since April 10 – minutes into the second half.

Finding himself on the edge of the Sunderland area, the full-back exchanged passes with Samir Nasri to engineer a clear run through on Pantilimon, who he beat with a calm chip from a narrow angle.

In the 71st minuteSubstitute James Milner was allowed time to send over a cross from the right, and Aguero lost his marker to sweep home the fourth from close range, his eighth goal in seven games.

The Argentine was denied a third hat-trick of the season when he was replaced by Frank Lampard for the final 15 minutes.

Photo: Action Images

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