FOOL us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola has already been down the suspension road with star striker Sergio Aguero this season.
After the Argentinian copped a three match ban for elbowing West Ham’s Winston Reid in August his manager reportedly warned him to be more intelligent - and disciplined - on the pitch.
Well, that didn’t work.
Aguero, who has already scored 10 goals in 12 Premier League matches, is set to miss City’s next four outings after he was sent off for a horror tackle on David Luiz in stoppage-time of the 3-1 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Fernandinho will also miss three games for pushing Cesc Fabregas over the barricade.
On face value, losing the club’s top scorer over the past five seasons seems like a potentially title-changing blow with a packed fixture list to negotiate before the Christmas rush.
City have to face Leicester, Watford and then rivals Arsenal within eight days, while Aguero will also miss the December 27 fixture against Hull.
Can they navigate those four gamees and remain within touching distance of Chelsea, now clear on top after eight straight wins.
City won all three of their matches against Manchester United, Bournemouth and Swansea when Aguero was serving his suspension for the incident with Reid, and statistics show City have actually averaged more points and goals when Aguero hasn’t been starting.
In the 40 fixtures Aguero started since the beginning of last season, City averaged 1.8 points per game compared to the 12 games he didn’t start, where they’ve averaged two points per game.
The beneficiary of Aguero’s suspension is likely to be starlet Kelechi Iheanacho, who hasn’t started a Premier League match since October, but did make a match-winning impact for City in the 2-1 win over United.
He jumped above Eric Bailley to flick a long ball on for Kevin de Bruyne to score the opener, before he scored the second when De Bruyne’s effort bounced back off the post and into his path.
A week later the 20-year-old scored again in the 4-0 win over Bournemouth, and statistics suggest he’s likely to make the most of another opportunity.
Since the beginning of last season, no player who’s scored more than 10 times in the Premier League has a better minutes to goal ratio than Iheanacho.
Who’s in second place? Aguero of course.
While Guardiola is clearly a fan of the talented Nigerian, losing arguably the best PL striker in recent years - needlessly - at a crucial point of a tight title race, could be one of the defining turning points of the entire season.
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