Aguero vs Higuain: Which of the two Argentine goalscorers is the better striker?

David Silva linking up with Sergio Aguero has been one of the most enduring sights in the Premier League in the 2010s. The Spaniard has provided 17 assists to Aguero since 2011, and now Chelsea have their own Euro creator/Argentine hitman combination in the form of Eden Hazard and Gonzalo Higuain. After what can only be described as a tentative start in Chelsea’s 4-0 defeat at Bournemouth, they both scored twice in the 5-0 win against Huddersfield (disclaimer: Huddersfield) to set up an intriguing game at the Etihad on Sunday.

Between them, Aguero and Higuain have 164 caps and 70 goals for their nation, and though the Premier League has a reasonable history of Argentines lining up against each other (the first time this happened, incidentally, was in September 1998 in a game between Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal when Juan Cobian played for the Owls and Nelson Vivas featured for the reigning champions – Cobian would later go on to play for Swindon, one of the few players to play for Boca Juniors and in Wiltshire), Sunday is surely the most glamorous and high profile Argentine-on-Argentine moment yet.

Not only are Aguero and Higuain close in age but they moved to Europe at the same time, meaning there is the rare opportunity for a direct comparison. And it turns out their numbers are incredibly similar given this is a period that spans almost 13 years, with Aguero just five goals and two assists ahead of Higuain, though the latter edges it on both minutes per goal and minutes per goal involvement. Really though, this is elite level output from both men.

Compared to their contemporaries in the same period, Aguero and Higuain are behind only the inevitable pairing of Lionel Messi (397 goals) and Cristiano Ronaldo (394) and then Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani (with 245 and 244 respectively). Those six are the only men to have scored more than 200 league goals in the top five leagues since 2006-07 and only Messi, Ronaldo, Aguero and Higuain have done so entirely in La Liga, Serie A and the Premier League, arguably the three hardest divisions to score goals in. The fact all three are from the same country and the same generation is both a coincidence and a testament to the quality of forwards that Argentina produces. When you include the likes of Gabriel Batistuta, Hernan Crespo and Carlos Tevez, very few nations can rival them in this respect.

That @HazardEden10 x @G_Higuain link-up play… pic.twitter.com/IL3NWBoVaM

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 7, 2019

If Messi will be remembered as the greatest footballer of all-time, and the ultimate one-club man, Higuain has followed the more traditional route for a South American star, moving from River Plate to Real Madrid to Napoli to Juventus before embarking on a pair of luxury loans at Milan and Chelsea. Aguero fits somewhere in between, City beating the likes of Chelsea to his signature in 2011 and, with many more highs than lows, keeping him happy and productive for the rest of the decade. Even though Higuain has won five league titles in Europe to Aguero’s three, on Sunday he may glance at his compatriot and envy the legacy the City man has built in England. Just 18 goals behind Thierry Henry as the top scoring overseas player in Premier League history, if Aguero sees out the remaining two years of his contract he will surely become only the third player to score 200 Premier League goals as well as completing 10 years with the club.

Sergio Aguero now has as many PL hat-tricks as Cristiano Ronaldo, Eric Cantona, Dennis Bergkamp, Daniel Sturridge, Jurgen Klinsmann, Gianluca Vialli, Louis Saha, Dirk Kuyt, Robert Pires & Samuel Eto'o combined

— Duncan Alexander (@oilysailor) February 3, 2019

Higuain, much like his new club, is focused more on short-term goals, and unsustainable though it may be over the longer term, his arrival at Chelsea could be the turning point for Maurizio Sarri in his first season in England, and the biggest danger to Manchester City’s resurrected title challenge.

A £10 bet on Higuain to score vs Man City returns £35.00