Man City's Sergio Aguero on track to be better than Ronaldo and Messi - Manuel Pellegrini

MANUEL PELLEGRINI believes Sergio Aguero has yet to hit the peak of his powers – and could even overtake Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the best player in the worldDespite 11 goals in 11 games this season for Manchester City this season, Pellegrini says there is still much more to come from 26-year-old Aguero, who boasts the best goals-per-game strike rate in the Premier League since he arrived for a club record £38m fee from Atletico Madrid in 2011.

 
Aguero record of 86 goals in 133 games in all competitions for City would have been even better but for a succession of niggling muscle injuries and Pellegrini believes keeping him fit is vital to City’s chances of success this season.
 
Ahead of City’s trip to Wet Ham tomorrow (Sat), he said: “I don’t think it is the best I have seen from Sergio. I have known him for a lot of years, long before we were here together in England.
 
“He was a very important player for City when they won the title in 2011-12 and again when we won the title last season, especially in the first half of the season when he was not injured.
 
“After that, it was difficult for him but I was always sure he would return to his normal performance. I think he can get even better.
 
“He is still a young player, he has a lot of years to improve, three or four years more than other players [Ronaldo and Messi]. It just depends on what he wants to do in the future. I think he has all the conditions to become the best in the world.”
 
City rattled home 14 goals and conceding only one when beating the hammers four times last season, twice in the Capital One Cup and twice in the Premier League.
 
But Pellegrini says Sam Allardyce’s team are not only much stronger this season but playing in a different style.He added: “West Ham are in a good moment. They have different players and they are playing in a different way. They have bought two important strikers and they are doing very well.
 
“They are scoring a lot of goals, they are playing attractive football, they have an important win against Liverpool at home and they have won their last two games. I am sure we are going to have a very difficult rival exactly as we have every game in the Premier League.
 
“I don’t think what happened last season [against West Ham] has any relation with this season. It is a different moment for both teams. I don’t think we are going to repeat the score that we did last season against them in the Capital One Cup.
 
“Yes we have enough time to recover for the game because we played [in Moscow] on Tuesday night so we have three and a half days to recover. It is more time than in relation to other games you have less than 72 hours so we don’t complain."

Pellegrini has told his City players to pick themselves up and focus on the task ahead of them in the lunchtime kick-off at Upton Park after tossing away a 2-0 lead against CSKA in midweek to leave their Champions League hopes in the balance.
 
He added: “Of course it was a frustration because in the first half we had enough chances to decide the game. We didn’t and we paid maybe for lack of concentration or excess of trust and we lost two important points but in the Champions League the most important thing is to qualify for the next stage so you can make a mistake and still recover.
 
“We have nine points more to play for in our group and the game that will decide if we qualify for the next stage will be the game we have to play in Rome.
 
“Where we cannot lose points is in the Premier League. Now we have finished [analysing] the Champions League and all of us are thinking about West Ham.”
 
Frank Lampard [thigh] is not fit to return to his first club while Samir Nasri is training with the squad again but will make his comeback in the midweek Capital One Cup tie against Newcastle on Wednesday.