Manchester City’s sixth Premier League victory of the season, that helped them go top after Liverpool’s draw at Chelsea, was decorated by a superb Sergio Agüero goal. Midway through the second half, the striker traded passes with David Silva near the centre circle and slalomed towards goal with some soft-shoe shuffle skill that had him nutmegging Lewis Dunk before he found Raheem Sterling to the left. The England forward twisted and sent the ball back to the Argentinian who was never going to miss from eight yards out, scoring his fifth league goal of the campaign.

City’s fans, already buoyed by West Ham’s lunchtime victory over José Mourinho’s Manchester United , taunted their rivals delightedly with chants of: “Don’t sack Mourinho.”

Pep Guardiola, though, revealed Agüero is carrying a heel problem. “Sergio is struggling a bit with some problems in his feet,” the City manager said. “He is not 100%. He has not recovered from what happened against Newcastle [on 1 September] and we spoke about to play 55-60 minutes. We were lucky he scored at the right moment.”

On Tuesday, City are at Hoffenheim in the Champions League and then travel to Liverpool next Sunday for the final league match before the international break. “Hopefully he can do the two and then recover,” Guardiola said.

Liverpool defeated City three times last season. “If they beat us three times, they are a good side,” he said. “After Hoffenheim we are going to prepare.”

As expected, Guardiola made wholesale changes with only David Silva, Nicolás Otamendi and Oleksandr Zinchenko surviving from the 3-0 defeat of Oxford United in the Carabao Cup.

Brighton were eliminated from that competition in August. So their most recent outing was last Saturday against Tottenham. Chris Hughton made two changes from that line-up as Jürgen Locadia and Beram Kayal were drafted in.

City often start at full tilt here and thereby force an early goal. If the former was true, Guardiola’s men hogging ball and territory, the visitors could be content at reaching the quarter-hour mark still level.

The problem is the sublime quality that runs through them. City drove forward at speed and so it was when opening the scoring via a fluid sequence. Agüero dropped back to take the ball and passed to Leroy Sané. The German raced through on the left and hit a skidding pass across the six-yard box to leave Gaëtan Bong flailing. There was Sterling to turn the ball into an empty net for his fourth goal of the season.

The same player came close to doubling the advantage as the break neared. This time he displayed snake hips to create time and space as Bong neared and Mathew Ryan had to produce a sharp save to his left. The Brighton keeper was just as agile when throwing himself to his right from Fernandinho’s 25-yard strike, seconds before the break.

Brighton were lucky to trail by one goal as the second half started. Guardiola’s advice to his men may have been to keep on keeping on and they were first to show, Kyle Walker blazing wide after a buildup involving Otamendi, Aymeric Laporte and Fernandinho.

The contest was more or less being played in Brighton’s final third. Any time the visitors managed a foray out of their half City cleaned up with ease, as when Anthony Knockaert chased the ball along the left only to see Laporte come across.

Sané bounded on to a laser of a Bernardo Silva diagonal from the right, but his header went into the ground and over.

The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email.

As City turned up the tempo Agüero’s shot was blocked, then David Silva smashed the ball at goal and Ryan did well to repel it.

Ever the perfectionist, Guardiola stalked around from his seat to the technical area looking to aid his side. At one point, he offered Zinchenko enthusiastic encouragement and when Agüero scored, the Catalan punched the air and gave the Argentina striker a prolonged embrace.

City did not add to their tally but managed the match expertly to seal another convincing victory.

José Mourinho criticises players’ mentality during West Ham defeat Read more

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Raheem Sterling opens the scoring for Manchester City. Photograph: Matt McNulty - Manchester City/Man City via Getty Images

Hughton said: “They have probably still not got into their best form yet.”