Sergio Agüero is confident he can break a six-match, 556-minute drought by scoring a sixth derby goal when Manchester City face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday, and the Argentinian insists the champions can retain the title despite trailing Chelsea by nine points.
Despite the fact that José Mourinho’s team also have a match in hand, Agüero said: “Of course we can still win it. In football, anything can happen – as soon as you think something is certain, then everything changes, we have seen it so many times before and we’ll see it again. We only focus on ourselves, try to win every game we play, and keep pressure on Chelsea.”
Agüero has scored 23 goals in 35 appearances for City this term but the last of those came in the 2-1 Champions League defeat to Barcelona at the Etihad Stadium on 24 February. But Agüero is confident he can add to the tally as City seek to beat United and leapfrog Louis van Gaal’s side in the table.
“I always love to score, but of course it is even more special to score in the big games,” he told Sky Sports. “If you score against United at Old Trafford it almost gives you shivers, because you can feel the tense atmosphere with most of the stadium being really quiet, but the away end going crazy. At home at it is different, when the City supporters are really loud in these games, it sometimes gives me goose bumps when they sing my name.”
Agüero believes United, who have won their last five league matches, can be unpredictable. “They are a team with a lot of great individual players, who can form an incredible unit when they work well together. But this season that has not always been the case. Some matches they don’t seem to play at the maximum, with the attacking qualities that they have in the team. But then in other games, they have really shown those qualities, so they are a bit unpredictable. We know we will have to be at our very best to beat them – there’s no doubt about that.”
Agüero identified Radamel Falcao as United’s most natural striker despite the Colombian struggling in his first season at the club. The 29-year-old, who is on loan from Monaco, has only scored four times since arriving at Old Trafford. “They have a number of very talented strikers [but] the one who in his career has been the most predatory is Falcao,” Agüero said. “He isn’t having an easy time this season, but I really admire his commitment, and his class and qualities are permanent. He is probably one of the most naturally gifted strikers in football at the moment.”
