Gabriel Agbonlahor and Darren Bent combined last weekend to produce one of the best performances as a pair up-front this season. Agbonlahor proved to be untouchable at some moments of the match as he piled on the misery for Norwich down the flanks.
Gaby Agbonlahor ended up scoring a great goal and setting up the remainder of the 3 goals for his strike partner Darren Bent, who is simply superb at the moment. The pair have been included in Fabio Capello’s England squad for the two fixtures against world champions Spain and Sweden this weekend. With Wayne Rooney excluded from the lineup after that mad kick in the last of the Euro qualifiers, I would not bet against Bent and Agbonlahor starting for England at Wembley on Saturday.
Darren Bent is undoubtedly one of the best strikers in England at the moment. He commanded a fee of 24 million pounds when he moved to Villa from Spurs in January and the simple reason behind this fee is the fact that his goal scoring ratio is right up there with the very best.
Bent has firmly established himself in Fabio Capello’s England team and there is nobody around at the moment who can destabilize him. He is one of the best in the league at converting his chances inside the box. There is no one better in the league at the moment at this other than perhaps Javier Hernandez of Manchester United.
Gabriel Agbonlahor, on the other hand, has become adept at creating chances from outside the box, from the flanks, as well as from inside the area. He has also excelled in finishing some of these chances from outside the box as we have seen on many occasions this season.
Against Norwich in the weekend, Gaby was simply irresistible. In the first half itself, he tore Kyle Naughton into shreds and clipped in to dangerous balls into the box for Bent, who converted one of these chances. In the second half too, Gaby repeated the feat with left back Marc Tierney at the receiving end of his brilliance.
While their club manager Alex McLeish sung the duos praises after the match, what was pleasing to hear was Bent and Gaby themselves pouring each other’s praises in public – a hallmark of a successful strike partnership.
I have a feeling that England will be richly rewarded the following summer if this duo is unleashed on Spain this weekend and in the Euro’s next summer.