The sight of Sergio Aguero warming up on the touchline on Tuesday night was a relief for Manchester City fans and such was their composure in seeing out the game that he wasn’t even needed.
However, Pep Guardiola knows Aguero will not want to remain on the bench for long and will be hoping for a return to first-team action on Saturday at home to Burnley.
The problem (if you can call it that) is that Pep will be hard pushed to drop anybody given the level of performance of late.
The movement of Sterling, Jesus and Sane is so slick that he will be reluctant to bring back Aguero.
But it is hard to see him leaving him out for much longer. He may feel he is not quite 100 % over his injuries and may leave him out so that he can start in the League Cup (I refuse to call it anything else) against Wolves on Tuesday evening.
Aguero, however, will want to be back among the goals in the Premier League, particularly given the service currently on offer from a City side playing the best football the club has ever seen.
Pep has the very welcome conundrum of how to keep the football as it is and where to accommodate the Premier League’s most lethal marksman.
Burnley have started well, particularly away from home having beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, as well as Everton at Goodison and gained good points away at Liverpool and Spurs.
But this will undoubtedly be their biggest test and Sean Dyche would snap your hand off for a point right now. Burnley’s physical, disciplined approach may frustrate City but as Watford, Crystal Palace and Stoke found out – it is not usually enough to stop the goals flying in.
It really is difficult to see how teams are going to stop Guardiola’s men this season and Burnley may be next in line for a heavy defeat.
