Pablo Zabaleta was in high spirits after scoring his first goal of the season for Manchester City with an intriguing celebration to boot.
The Argentinian scored a delicate lob as City shook off their Stadium of Light hoodoo to beat Sunderland 4-1 thanks to two goals from Sergio Aguero.
And defender Zabaleta was in a cheeky mood as City had lost their previous four games at Sunderland 1-0 but were clinical this time around with four shots on target and four goals.
“I finish better than Sergio,” he laughed, talking to CityTV.
“Like a striker, maybe Sergio is a bit worried about me. He’s on 14 and I’m on one so I still have games to catch him.”
Zabaleta’s reaction to his goal and City’s third saw him put the ball under his shirt to signal a baby was on the way.
“It was a bit special. I said to my wife hopefully I can score at least one goal in this nice month,” he added.
“She is five months pregnant already so I thought, there is still four months to go, I need to score as soon as possible.
“She was here tonight and I was very lucky that she was in the stand. We’ve been together a long time and I never thought a little man would be on the way.”
Sunderland had initially taken the lead through Connor Wickham before Aguero’s first and Stevan Jovetic gave City the lead before the break.
Manuel Pellegrini’s men then steered clear in the second half thanks to Zabaleta and Aguero on a night where league pacesetters Chelsea comfortably won 3-0 against Tottenham.
This means that City remain six points behind the leaders as they head into the busy Christmas schedule and boss Pellegrini is pleased with his side’s goalscoring feats.
“I am very happy because I always say it is important to be an attractive, offensive team so the fans can enjoy the game. In the last three games, we have scored ten goals,” he told CityTV.
“We are trying to have an important amount of goals every game and it is important to defend well also.
“I am very happy for Kun because he is working hard. I always say he is too young. He is only 26 years old and I think he can improve every day.
“Before he started scoring in these games in a row, I thought he was in the top five players in the world. He’s playing well as well as scoring.”
Main image courtesy of Manchester City FC via YouTube, with thanks.
