Sergio Aguero grabbed all four of his side’s goals as Manchester City secured a comfortable 4-1 victory over Tottenham in Saturday’s lunchtime kick off.

The Argentine striker gave the hosts the lead 13 minutes into the match, before Spurs’ Danish international midfielder Christian Eriksen equalised with a fine strike.

Aguero then put the Citizens 2-1 up from the penalty spot after Frank Lampard was deemed to have been fouled by Erik Lamela.

After the half-time break, Aguero scored another penalty in the 68th minute and then put the result beyond all doubt after springing the offside trap before finishing coolly beyond Hugo Lloris.

The game at the Etihad was dominated by refereeing decisions. A total of four penalties were awarded in the match, three for the home side, one of which was missed by the in-form Aguero, and one for Spurs, which was attempted lazily by striker Roberto Soldado, who saw his weak effort saved by Joe Hart.

It was a disappointing day all round for Spurs, as defender Federico Fazio was sent off on his league debut for the London club.

After the game, City manager Manuel Pellegrini praised his side, saying: “It’s a very good victory for us. It’s always difficult to come back from the international break. We played well, we scored four goals and I don’t know how many chances we had.

“We must now start to think about Champions League. We are going to Russia [to face CSKA Moscow on Tuesday] to try to win. For me it’s a good pressure to win all the games when you have a good team. We made five or six changes. I trust a lot in this squad.”