LONDON • Pep Guardiola believes Sergio Aguero will always retain his predatory instincts in front of goal, as Manchester City hope the return of the club's record scorer will end their goal drought in the English top flight.
City are off to their worst league start since the first few months of the club's Abu Dhabi-backed ownership in 2008.
Guardiola's men sit 13th in the Premier League table - before yesterday's fixture between Crystal Palace and Newcastle - with seven goals in their last seven league games. Their negative-one goal difference is their lowest at this stage of the season since 2006-07 when they finished 14th.
Aguero missed the end of last season and most of the current campaign through injury. He returned at home to Arsenal but picked up another problem in the subsequent game at West Ham.
However, he was a substitute in Wednesday's 1-0 Champions League win over Olympiakos that booked City's place in the last 16.
"He's going to give us good moments this season," said Guardiola. "He is still not in his best condition, we cannot forget how long his injury was. He is a guy that needs to be so sharp. His quality to score goals in the box always was, always is and always will be, we don't have doubts about that."
Aguero could be entering his final few months in Manchester after nine years there, with his contract expiring at the end of the season.
Guardiola refused to comment on whether the 32-year-old will be offered a new deal, but said Aguero had earned the right to go out on his own terms.
"He is a guy who deserves with the club fair talks to decide what is the best for him, for the club, for everyone," the City boss added.
The Argentina striker is in contention to feature against Burnley in the Premier League today, despite his family connections to the death of compatriot and legend Diego Maradona earlier this week.
Maradona, whose daughter Gianinna was married to and has a child with Aguero, died at the age of 60 on Wednesday.
"Obviously the impact on the day of the game against Olympiakos was hard, especially for his son," said Guardiola. "Of course it was tough, it is normal.
"He knew Maradona quite well... (Diego was) his son's grandfather. It is the situation unfortunately for his family, (he) is OK, but it's a question for him to answer, it's difficult for me to answer."
He confirmed he had no fresh injury worries ahead of the Clarets' visit, with Fernandinho, Benjamin Mendy and Oleksandr Zinchenko returning in midweek, and summer signing Nathan Ake back in training.
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MAN CITY V BURNLEY
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