We take a look at Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sergio Aguero's race for the Premier League's Golden Boot.
Another week into the Premier League season, and another week of promise and excitement for fans of both Manchester teams all around the country.
With Jose Mourinho having made his long awaited Old Trafford debut, and Pep Guardiola finally having proved that, yes, he really can do it on a cold night in Stoke, things are shaping up for what looks like one of the most interesting title-races the Premier League has ever seen.
In the midst of all the excitement and drama, another, much-talked about rivalry has also well and truly began – Zlatan Ibrahimović and Sergio Aguero’s titanic battle for the crown of Manchester’s most prolific striker.
Both have started the season in prolific form, with Zlatan having scored four in his first three appearances for the Red Devils, whilst Aguero has notched an even more impressive six goals in his first three games under new manager Pep Guardiola.
Three of Aguero’s goals have however come in his one appearance in this year’s Champions League qualification stage, meaning that in terms of Premier League goals, both currently stand on three goals from their first two games – Ibrahimović’s additional goal having been scored in the Community shield.
Both look set to remain their teams key goal scorer throughout this campaign, and with both Manchester sides having spent heavily this summer, and being hotly tipped to claim the title this season, goals are unlikely to be in short supply.
So with the two seemingly poised for a head-to-head battle over who will claim the Premier League’s ever-elusive Golden boot, which of the two looks better equipped to achieve exactly that?
Aguero certainly leads the way in terms of Premier League experience. Having joined City in the summer of 2011 for a reported fee of around £38 million, the Argentine forward has since gone on to make 151 league appearances for the citizens, scoring an astounding 105 goals in the process (0.70 goals per game).
Over the same time period, Ibrahimović played for both A.C Milan and Paris Saint-Germain – in Serie A and Ligue 1 respectively – taking just 156 league appearances to rack up an unprecedented 144 league goals (0.92 goals per game).
Despite this statistical superiority in terms of goals scored over the past five seasons for Ibrahimović, the vast majority of these goals – 113 to be precise – have come playing for Paris Saint-Germain, a team whose level of dominance in their domestic league is almost unparalleled across European football.
Although Aguero has also played for one of the strongest teams in his own league – winning two out of the last five Premier League titles – he has not experienced a comparable level of domination to that of Ibrahimović’s.
Another factor that many have raised in Aguero’s defence, is that of the standard of football at which he has scored his goals.
Whilst Ligue 1 may still remain one of Europe’s top five leagues – lying in fifth place to England’s third – the overall quality and competition within the league is undoubtedly at a much lower level than that found within the Premier League.
Although Zlatan has no prior experience playing within England however, he has played – and more importantly scored – in six different countries across his long and illustrious career (Sweden, Holland, Italy, Spain, France, and now England).
Regardless of experience and goal scoring prowess, there is one last factor which may have the final say on who emerges triumphant come the end of the season. Injuries.
Over the past five seasons, both strikers have had their respective injury issues, resulting in both missing large parts of their own domestic league campaign.
Aguero, who’s frequent injury issues are oft levelled against him as one of his only downfalls, has averaged 30 league appearances per season – 79% of the available games.
Ibrahimović fares only slightly better, averaging slightly under 31 games per season (30.8) – 81% of the available matches.
With both on average missing a fifth of almost all league games available to them, whoever can stay fit and injury free for the longest duration across the course of this season, may just hold the upper-hand in their duel for the Golden boot.