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Sergio Aguero needs 42 minutes less than Mohamed Salah to score a goal… will the clinical Argentine star be the difference in two-way title battle between Liverpool and Man City?
- Just one point splits Liverpool and Man City at the top of the Premier League
- This season’s title race looks set to go down to the wire with 10 matches left
- City’s Sergio Aguero tops the Premier League scoring chart with 18 goals
- Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah is just one goal behind the Argentine
- Aguero’s minutes per goal and shot conversion ratio stats are superior
- The City man also scores more frequently against opponents in the top six
As the Premier League title race moves into its final 10 games, now is the time to stand up and be counted.
That is especially relevant to strikers and it’s no coincidence that the two teams challenging for the title both have players at the top of the scoring charts.
In the way Manchester City and Liverpool are split by just one point in the standings, Sergio Aguero and Mohamed Salah are separated by one goal in the Premier League top scorers ranking.
Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero (left) and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (right) are first and second respectively in the Premier League’s leading scorer chart
The Premier League title race is hotting up with Liverpool and Man City split by one point
How Salah and Aguero compare statistically in Premier League fixtures. Stats courtesy of Opta
Both the Argentine and the Egyptian are enjoying prolific seasons once again – Aguero has scored 18 league goals, while Salah has netted 17 times. But who has been the more lethal in front of goal?
The first thing to note is that Salah has played more often this season, with 28 appearances and 2,376 minutes in the Premier League as opposed to 24 appearances and 1,763 minutes for Aguero.
The main reason for the discrepancy is that Aguero missed three matches at the start of December with a groin injury and then spent another as an unused substitute following his return. Salah has stayed clear of injury.
Nonetheless, Aguero’s minutes-per-goal figure of 97.9 is significantly better than Salah’s 139.8, the Argentine finding the net with greater regularity than the Egyptian this season.
Aguero’s 18 goals have come from 87 shots on goal, meaning a shot conversion rate of 20.69 percent. By comparison, Salah’s 17 goals have come from 92 shots, meaning a slightly worse conversion of 18.48 per cent.
Mind you, the fact both of these strikers are putting away one in every five of their shots is highly impressive in such a demanding league.
Aguero held his nerve from the penalty spot to earn City a precious win over West Ham
The Argentine is enjoying another excellent season, scoring 18 times in the Premier League
Aguero has long had a reputation as the ultimate penalty box predator and the stats show that he has enjoyed significantly fewer touches in opposition penalty areas than Salah, yet has scored more goals.
The City striker has had 163 touches inside opposition penalty areas in the league this season yet has managed to get off 87 shots in total, of which 33 were on target and 18 were scored.
Salah has had 231 touches in opposition boxes and 92 shots in total, with 45 on target and 17 goals. So the Liverpool man gets more shots on target than Aguero but scores with fewer of them.
In any title race, beating the sides around you is always a key factor and this is where Aguero really comes into his own.
In this season’s matches against Liverpool’s fellow top six rivals, Salah has only found the net once – in the 5-1 win over Arsenal at the end of December.
Mohamed Salah gets a hug from his manager Jurgen Klopp after the recent Bournemouth win
The Egyptian star has scored 17 times in the Premier League so far this season
Player | Club | Goals | Mins per goal |
---|---|---|---|
Sergio Aguero | Manchester City | 18 | 98 |
Mohamed Salah | Liverpool | 17 | 140 |
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Arsenal | 16 | 131 |
Harry Kane | Tottenham | 15 | 138 |
Sadio Mane | Liverpool | 14 | 157 |
Eden Hazard | Chelsea | 12 | 173 |
Raheem Sterling | Manchester City | 12 | 166 |
Alexandre Lacazette | Arsenal | 12 | 153 |
Paul Pogba | Manchester United | 11 | 192 |
Heung-min Son | Tottenham | 11 | 138 |
Gylfi Sigurdsson | Everton | 11 | 205 |
Callum Wilson | Bournemouth | 10 | 173 |
Raul Jimenez | Wolves | 10 | 229 |
Aleksandar Mitrovic | Fulham | 10 | 247 |
Richarlison | Everton | 10 | 204 |
Romelu Lukaku | Manchester United | 10 | 160 |
Glenn Murray | Brighton | 10 | 178 |
His other league goals have come against West Ham, Brighton (2), Southampton, Huddersfield, Cardiff, Fulham, Watford, Bournemouth (4), Wolves, Newcastle and Crystal Palace (2).
By contrast, Aguero has this season scored once against Liverpool, once against Manchester United, three times against Arsenal and three times against Chelsea.
He has been delivering the goods more reliably against the big guns this season than Salah plus the pattern of his goals suggests Aguero is coming into his peak form at just the right time.
He has scored eight times in his last five league outings – including those hat-tricks against Arsenal and Chelsea. In the same period, Salah has netted just the once.
That isn’t to say Salah won’t yet produce the goals during the title run-in. But, at the moment, it’s Aguero’s title-winning experience that is coming to the fore.
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