Sergio Aguero scored 23 goals in his first season in the Premier League for Manchester City, including the famous last minute title-winner. In his second season he scored a relatively poor 12. He was back to his best in his third campaign with 17 goals in 26 appearances. And so far this season he’s shown us an even better level with 12 goals in 13.
The Argentine is currently on course to break the Premier League season goal record of 31 held jointly by Luis Suarez, Alan Shearer & Cristiano Ronaldo – not a bad group of players to be in.
His overall scoring tally thus far is 64 in just 98 appearances. He’s not in the yet 100 club (players who have scored 100 PL goals or more) but he’s on course to getting to that tally in less than 200 appearances.
Which strikers are considered the best in the Premier League’s history? Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney and Thierry Henry are three names that spring to mind quickly.
Alan Shearer was the first player to enter the 100 club and he did so in around 120 appearances, much more prolific than Aguero’s current record. Although less prolific for Newcastle compared to his time at Blackburn, he scored over 100 league goals for each and is still the only player to have scored 200+ goals in the Premier League’s history – undoubtedly the best.
Wayne Rooney is still playing and he will be trying his hardest to push Shearer’s goalscoring record. He’s only 11 goals behind Andy Cole, and when he inevitably passes him he will be the nearest chaser to the overall record – albeit still a long way behind.
Wazza has played a lot more than those around him to reach his tally of Premier League goals, but in fairness to the striker he started is career at Everton aged just 16, where he only scored 15 league goals for The Toffees in 67 appearances. Since his move to Manchester United he has certainly become more prolific but growing up in the game certainly negatively affected Rooney’s strike rate.
The England captain’s current record is 161 goals in 315 appearances for United. A great scoring record but not even close to Shearer’s strike rate.
Theirry Henry was a wonderful striker to watch, and he was certainly prolific also. The Frenchman made only 254 appearances for Arsenal during his initial stint but he managed to scored 174 goals in that time, enough to place himself 4th in the all-time Premier League scorers list.
Top 5 Premier League strike rates of strikers in the ‘100 club’
1 – Thierry Henry – 0.67
Sergio Aguero – 0.65*
2 – Les Ferdinand – 0.61 * Still playing in the Premier League
3 – Alan Shearer – 0.59
4 – Ian Wright – 0.53
5 – Robin Van Persie – 0.52*
Sergio is certainly on form to become one of the most prolific scorers in Premier League history and is only marginally behind the legendary Theirry Henry in striker rate terms. Of course of the players who are still playing will see their strike rates fluctuate from game to game.
To be amongst the all-time greats you have to dedicate the majority of your career and the best years to play in the same league. Some strikers have been as prolific as those mentioned above but they’ve been around for a relatively short amount of time.
Ruud van Nistelrooy for example had a terrific time at Man United and generally throughout his career – a true goalscorer. Ruud almost joined the ‘100 club’ with in just 150 appearances, scoring 95 goals in that time. His strike rate was 0.63 in the Premier League which would have put him behind only Henry in the above chart.
Sergio is certainly impressive, but he has a long way to go to become one of the very best. The first step is reaching the ‘100 club’, after that it’s all about staying in the division and scoring consistently for as long as possible. He has recently said that he will be with Manchester City until they win the Champions League so that could in theory keep him there for the entirety of his career.
He may become one of the best, but Alan Shearer should still be considered the best of all-time in the Premier League. However, there’s no knowing what Aguero can achieve in time.
