Sergio Aguero hailed as 'Man City legend' by Pep Guardiola after hat-trick

Pep Guardiola hailed Sergio Aguero as a club legend after the striker’s hat-trick moved him within two goals of Manchester City’s all-time top scorer Eric Brook.

Aguero scored three of City's six goals as they thrashed Watford 6-0 on Saturday to move top of the Premier League table.

The Argentinian striker has scored 125 Premier League goals in 186 games, only Alan Shearer has a better strike rate with 125 from 155.

The 29-year-old, who joined City from Atletico Madrid for £38million in 2011, now has 175 City goals in all competitions, edging him closer to Brook's record of 177, scored during a 13-year spell at the club from 1927 to 1940.

‘It will be soon,’ City’s manager said of the prospect of Aguero becoming their leading scorer.

‘Hopefully we can make a good celebration. Hopefully the club can do that one day. He’s a legend, he’s a part of history of the club. That’s good for him.’

Guardiola urged Aguero to become more involved on the ball and in assisting his team-mates last season and the Argentinian set up Gabriel Jesus for City’s third goal of the afternoon.

‘He just involved a little bit [more] without the ball,’ Guardiola said. ‘He did it last season the same, he did it now. Especially involved in the game. He’ s a guy who I encourage to play. Not just to be there to score a goal.

‘How many times we play with him on the ball? Again the ball arrives. I like not to have one or two players just defending or two or three just to score, I like everybody to defend, everybody has to play, everybody has to move to try to enjoy having the ball. The ball is the centre, it’s why the players are here.’

Watford manager Marco Silva was furious with several of referee Anthony Taylor’s calls during the game.

He insisted Aguero was offside when he ran to head in Kevin De Bruyne’s free kick for the first goal and that Jesus was as well when Aguero slipped him in.

‘When I analyse the first half, the first goal is offside, the second goal we made a big mistake and create a chance for them to score and again the third goal is offside,’ Silva said.

‘It’s true they had more chances to score than us, but we had the first chance to score with Richarlison and after they score offside, the third goal offside. It’s not easy to talk about the first half.’

They were already three goals down by half-time, but Silva also claimed Watford deserved a penalty early in the second half when Kyle Walker attempted to clear a ball but kicked Nathanial Chalobah instead.

‘The first 10 minutes of the second half we react well, we had a clear penalty,’ Silva said.

‘I'm sure it wouldn’t change the score, I’m City will still win the match, but give more confidence if we scored at this moment, for our team to react and do something different.’