Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini heaped praise on striker Sergio Aguero following his side's 3-0 win over Chelsea, claiming the Argentine could have scored "three or four" in the first half.

Aguero broke the deadlock for City following repeated attempts to get past the impressive Asmir Begovic, before Vincent Kompany and Fernandinho netted two late goals to add gloss to a convincing victory that serves as an early blow to Chelsea's hopes of defending the Premier League title.

"The first 45 minutes from Aguero were unbelievable," said Pellegrini. "It was just the three important saves from Begovic didn't allow him to score three or four goals. [The result] was very satisfying because it's not easy to beat the champions. Chelsea are the best team. They won the title last season and I think that the first 45 minutes we played deserved at least three goals. We played really well without conceding any chances for Chelsea to score and we created at least four clear chances. It was just Begovic had a great performance and we couldn't score more goals.

"Second half we had maybe some restrictions by the yellow cards, but in our worst moments Chelsea didn't have chances and finally we scored the two other goals that we deserved in the first half."

However, Pellegrini is reluctant to claim the result sends a warning signal to any other would-be champions.

"We are not sending a message to anybody, we are just playing the way we always try to," he added. "We have only played two games this season, but in both games we scored three goals and I think we have more concentration in defending, so that's why we also have clean sheets in the two games.

"[But] nothing is significant until the end of the season."