Zaba salute for City goal king Sergio

PABLO Zabaleta feels ‘very lucky’ to be playing alongside his fellow Argentinian Sergio Aguero at Manchester City.

Aguero has wasted little time getting back into his goalscoring groove after a month on the

sidelines, coming off the bench to strike in his first two comeback matches.

Despite missing eight games with a calf injury suffered in December, the 25–year–old already taken 21 goals this season.

It says much for free–scoring City’s attack that he was hardly missed, with Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko maintaining the prolific output. But Aguero’s return was still enthusiastically welcomed.

Manager Manuel Pellegrini hailed Aguero as the world's third–best player behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo before his injury and Zabaleta doesn’t disagree.

“I’m really happy to see him back,” right–back Zabaleta said. “He needs to get back to his best in a physical way because he’s been out for a month, but he took 50 seconds to score when he came back against Blackburn and, on Saturday, 20 minutes. It’s so easy for him.”

City have now scored 103 goals this season. Negredo has been as prolific as Aguero, having also scored 21, while Dzeko has netted 16 and Yaya Toure 14.

Negredo was the only one of that trio not to score in Saturday’s 4–2 win over Cardiff in the Barclays Premier League, but he might be excused after bagging seven in his previous four games.