Everton's Unbeaten Start Ends as Aguero and Negredo Fire City to Comfortable Win

Manchester City bounced back from their poor performance against Bayern Munich to secure a 3-1 win over Everton thanks to goals from Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo and an unfortunate own-goal from Tim Howard.

Manuel Pellegrini will have been especially pleased with the performance as Everton had taken the lead thanks to another wonderful goal from in-form forward Romelu Lukaku.

The on-loan Chelsea striker was a handful in the first half but his influence faded and it was Negredo and Aguero who handed City the lead in the first half before a penalty from the Argentinean rebounded off the post and found its way into the back of the net off the head of Howard.

It had been a dream start for Everton as after just 15 minutes Lukaku latched on to a ball from Phil Jagielka and the powerful Belgian easily turned inside Joleon Lescott before curling an effort past Joe Hart.

It was poor defending from the England centre back who was too easily turned and questions will again be asked of Hart who might have done better after getting his hand to the ball.

However, Manchester City trailed for less than a minute as Yaya Toure turned cleverly on the edge of the area before sliding a ball through to Negredo who expertly slotted the ball through the legs of Tim Howard.

City almost grabbed the lead thanks to a short corner routine which allowed James Milner to find space and his cross was deflected on to the bar by Sylvain Distin.

The combination of Lukau and his international colleague Kevin Miralles caused City plenty of problems and it was the latter who forced a good save from Hart around the half hour mark.

There was then a major blow for the home side as captain Vincent Kompany was forced to leave the field after picking up a knock, with the Belgian being replaced by Matija Nastasic.

Everton remained a threat, particularly when breaking with great pace, but it was City who claimed the lead just before the break after David Silva cleverly slipped in Aguero just inside the box and the Argentinean flashed his right foot shot low and hard across Howard.

Aguero's goal was a positive sign for City who had never lost a league game in which the striker had scored and they came out positively in the second half and dominated possession.

City won a penalty with just over 20 minutes remaining as Seamus Coleman nudged Pablo Zabaleta. Aguero hit the post with his spot kick but the ball rebounded on to Howard and back into his own net.

It was extremely unfortunate for the American keeper but Everton had been coming under increasing pressure as they struggled to get influential midfielder Ross Barkley into the game.

Everton failed to carve out another oportunity and it was almost four for City in injury time when Samir Nasri burst into the box but his effort was well saved by Howard.

Manchester City move up to second in the league with the win (though they are likely to be overtaken by Liverpool later in the day) and Pellegrini will have been extremely pleased after the comprehensive loss to Bayern Munich in mid-week.