Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has been encouraged by the early signs of his partnership with attacking midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and hopes they can form a strikeforce that will drive the side on to trophy-winning success.

De Bruyne has made an impressive start to his Manchester City career since he joined from VfL Wolfsburg in the close season, bagging seven goals in 14 appearances.

The first hint of a promising alliance between the Belgian and Aguero last month when City demolished Newcastle United 6-1 with the Argentine scoring five, two of them assisted by De Bruyne, who scored one himself.

Aguero picked up a hamstring injury while on international duty soon after and, in his absence, De Bruyne has spearheaded City’s title charge, helping them stay top of the Premier League table and qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League.

“I’m really happy because I think the club did a great piece of business bringing Kevin in and you are always happy when a quality player arrives and he is certainly that,” Aguero told the club’s website.

“The few chances I’ve had to play alongside him have been encouraging because we started to get an understanding of how each other plays.

“As I say, he is a great player and it’s really important he settles in and shows us what he can do and he’s also a great lad off the field as well so I’m looking forward to playing alongside him again,” he added.

Nicolas Otamendi had a shaky start to his City career but has since found his feet and produced a man-of-the-match display against bitter rivals Manchester United, one of an improved level of performance praised by his compatriot Aguero.

“Nico is a good player who will help our team and the more Argentinians the better as far as I’m concerned,” Aguero said.

“We need a big squad because we’ve got lots of games and many competitions we’re trying to win and all the players we’ve brought in over the summer have made us stronger.”