Moving Forward: Assessing the Golden Boot Hopes of Harry Kane & Sergio Aguero After Wembley Meeting
Neither Harry Kane nor Sergio Aguero were able to add to their Premier League goal tally for the season on Monday night when Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City met at Wembley in a game that promised to be a major test for both teams.
The biggest talking point prior to kickoff had been the state of the pitch. Wembley had hosted an NFL game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles just over 24 hours earlier and the turf showed surface signs of wear, while the gridiron pitch markings were still very prominent.
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The American football game, part of the successful ongoing NFL International Series, had been booked for months and it was only the failure of Spurs to have their new White Hart Lane stadium completed on time that forced this game to change venue.
The pitch appeared to affect City very little when Raheem Sterling pounced on a lapse by Spurs full-back Kieran Trippier, skipped past his international teammate in the penalty area and squared the ball to produce the opening goal for the reigning champions.
It was not City's all-time top scorer Aguero who was on the end of it, though. Instead, £60m club record signing Riyad Mahrez got the touch to turn the ball into the net, before raising his hands to the sky in tribute to the late Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
Aguero is City's all-time leading scorer with 208 goals to his name since joining from Atletico Madrid for what was then a £38m club record fee in the summer of 2011.
He may not have added to his tally on Monday - twice forcing Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris into action - but the Argentine already has six Premier League goals for the season, just one behind early Golden Boot pacesetters Eden Hazard and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Aguero, who was at last named in the PFA Team of the Year for the first time last season, has one Premier League Golden Boot to his name from 2014/15. He is also one of the most reliable and consistent strikers there is, scoring at least 20 in the league in each of the last four seasons.
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Given that City as a whole have scored 133 goals in their last 48 Premier League games and Aguero is starting, albeit not finishing, every game, his chances of rising to the top of the goalscorer charts and bagging a second Golden Boot appear very strong indeed.
One player who will be determined to stop Aguero, and anyone else, from winning the top scorer prize this season is Kane. A shot from the England captain on Monday narrowly whistled over the City crossbar. It had Ederson worried and could have changed the whole game with a little more dip.
Kane, who finally scored the first August Premier League goal of his career earlier this season despite concerns over rushing back too soon after the World Cup, has been slightly less prolific than Aguero so far this season. His five goals have come at an average of once every 179 minutes compared to the Argentine's return of once every 120 minutes.
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But Kane is a fierce competitor that will fancy his Golden Boot chances until the final whistle in May. That alone will drive him on to keep scoring, as it has done before. Even though he failed to scoop a third straight gong last season because of Mohamed Salah, he is one of only three Golden Boot winners to score more the following season and the only one to do it twice.
A goal-less performance this week will not dent Kane's confidence, nor will it dent Aguero's.
Assuming they can stay injury free, expect both players to be seriously challenging for the 2018/19 Premier League Golden Boot come May because they have the quality and proven track record to make it happen.
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