Football Focus: Guardiola fears Aguero's season is over

Manchester City’s all-time top scorer Sergio Aguero could be out for the rest of the season after suffering a knee injury during Monday’s 5-0 Premier League win over Burnley at The Etihad.

“It doesn’t look good. We are going to see tomorrow. He was struggling in the last month with a problem in the knee. We will see what he has done but it doesn’t look good for the season,” said Guardiola.

Aguero went down under a challenge from defender Ben Mee on the stroke of halftime with the Burnley captain ruled by VAR to have made contact with his foot.

The Argentine limped off to be replaced by Gabriel Jesus, the club’s only other recognised central striker.

Aguero will fly to Barcelona to have a specialist look at his knee after he picked up an injury in Monday's 5-0 win over Burnley, the Premier League club said on Tuesday.

Aguero was fouled in the box by Burnley defender Ben Mee and the Argentina international went down clutching his knee before he was withdrawn with Gabriel Jesus coming on as a substitute.

City boss Pep Guardiola said after the game he feared Aguero could miss the rest of the season and revealed the 32-year-old had been struggling with a knee problem the past few weeks.

"Sergio Aguero suffered damage to his left knee in the 5-0 win over Burnley on Monday evening," the club said in a statement.

"The striker will now travel to Barcelona to see Dr Ramon Cugat for further examination."

While second-placed City have next to no chance of catching leaders Liverpool, who have a 20-point lead with eight games remaining, the absence of Aguero will be a blow to Guardiola’s Champions League hopes.

City lead 2-1 against Real Madrid from the away leg of their last 16 match and are hoping to reach August’s ‘Final Eight’ of the competition in Lisbon.

Villa's Smith seeks more referee protection for Grealish

Aston Villa skipper Jack Grealish needs more protection from referees, manager Dean Smith said after the midfielder became the most fouled player in the Premier League this season.

Statistics by sports data provider Opta showed Grealish was fouled nine times in Sunday’s 2-1 defeat by Chelsea — the most on one player in a single game this season.

His tally for the campaign stands at 140, with Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha the next most targeted player, drawing 98 fouls this season.

“Jack has had a marker on him all season...,” Smith told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s league trip to Newcastle United.

“The most surprising stat will be that there’s only about five bookings for those 140 fouls.

“The officials probably need to protect him more for sure. He’s got bruises all over his shins and his side.”

Villa are second from bottom with eight games remaining.