(Stats that prove the English Premier League is at least twice as hard as the French Ligue 1)
Who will score the most goals? Zlatan appears to be the less selfish of the two and has already said that it doesn’t matter who scores as long as United win. I am sure Agüero shares this sentiment although he is unlikely to voice it and, in fairness, can appear to be quite greedy when anywhere close to the eighteen yard area.
To date Manchester City have scored six goals in the Premier League and five in the Champion’s League. Of these eleven goals Agüero has been responsible for six of them and has even found time to miss two penalties in a game where he went on to score a hat-trick! So he has scored 55% of all his team’s goals so far.
Manchester United have scored five goals in the Premier League and two in the Community Shield, (which doesn’t really count except for this discussion alone). Of these seven, Zlatan has scored four. This means he has contributed 57% of his team’s goals.
Percentages, however, can be misleading and it is the total number of goals which is important. At present, Manchester City have less individual goal scorers as Nolito has managed to chip in with three goals and David Silva has one, (for anybody counting, the other was an own goal by Sunderland’s Paddy McNair)
United, on the other hand, have seen goals from Wayne Rooney, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata so, although they have scored four goals less than City, they can boast more scorers.
Whoever finishes top out of these two will probably win the Premier League title and it may all be down to whoever finishes top of the individual goal scoring chart between the two clubs.
The way they have both started suggests that City will, in the main, outscore United. Jose Mourinho, though, is famous for not conceding many goals. So it should be a fascinating duel.
Despite Sir Alex Ferguson saying that United would never lose the league title on goal difference again, they probably would if it came down to themselves and Manchester City. This, of course, would be ironic as he made that statement having just lost the Premier League title in 2012, on goal difference, to guess who………….Manchester City!
The tussle between Sergio Agüero and Zlatan Ibrahimović promises to be a classic. They have both started the season in form and on fire. Where Zlatan may have the edge is his injury record compared with Agüero.
Ibrahimović does not miss many games through injury and he certainly does not look as though he is going to need a rest despite his advancing years.
Conversely, Sergio has been known to miss a few games through injury, mainly hamstring, which tends to keep him out for four weeks or more at a time. The injury situation may change at both clubs of course, now that they have different managers. Training tends to be a change from the previous regime and maybe less injuries will occur. Certainly Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola are managers who keep a very close eye on the types of injuries players are suffering and whether or not they are avoidable.
So, assuming Utopia, that is an injury free season for Agüero and Ibrahimović, and assuming that both teams remain in Europe or, if not, get eliminated at the same time, then of the two men in question, Ibrahimović will score a higher percentage of his teams goals but Agüero will score more goals.
Using this tinpot logic as a guide, Manchester City would win the Premier League because they would score more goals than United, Sergio Agüero would score more goals than Zlatan Ibrahimović and, assuming they conceded a similar amount, then it would be City who triumphed. Possibly on goal difference but more likely by a point or two.
It will be interesting to see how totally wrong I can be.