Ian Wright and Alan Shearer have condemned Sergio Aguero after the Manchester City striker grabbed assistant referee Sian Massey-Ellis during the side’s 1-0 victory over Arsenal.
Aguero was making his first appearance of the season after being sidelined for four months with a knee injury and the 32-year-old lasted 65 minutes at the Etihad on Saturday, as Raheem Sterling’s first-half strike sealed all three points for City.
The Argentine produced a tidy performance up front given his recent lack of first-team football but has received widespread criticism over an incident which took place just before half-time.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
A frustrated Aguero disputed Massey-Ellis’ decision after Arsenal were awarded a throw-in instead of City and placed a hand on the official’s neck which she pushed away.
Manchester United legend Gary Neville questioned Aguero’s behaviour on Sky Sports’ live commentary of the game and Gary Lineker discussed the ‘very awkward moment’ with pundits Wright and Shearer on BBC’s Match of the Day on Saturday night.
‘Yeah, he shouldn’t put his hand on the assistant referee,’ ex-England and Newcastle striker Shearer said.
‘It just wasn’t a good look, Gary, was it?
‘He shouldn’t do it.’
Arsenal great Wright responded: ‘What was that?! Unnecessary, unnecessarily patronising.
‘It felt really awkward, that did to me.’
Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola defended Aguero’s character and brushed off the incident in his post-match press conference.
‘Hey come on guys. Come on guys,’ the Spaniard said.
‘Sergio is the nicest person I ever met in my life.
‘We can look at the problems in other situations but not in this one. Come on.’
He added: ‘We are incredibly happy he is back, for him, for all of us.
‘It was four months, still he is away from his condition, but he got 55, 60 minutes, that is good, and Wednesday we have another game.
‘So yeah it’s important to have him. We need his goals, his performance, and it’s good he’s back.’
