The Manchester derby matchup to watch: City's Sergio Aguero vs. United's Wayne Rooney
On Sunday, noisy Premier League champion Manchester City welcomes its quiet neighbor, Manchester United, to one of the most explosive and emotionally charged fixtures in the Premier League. For the first time in history, the Manchester derby features two sides that can claim all four of the most recent Premier League titles.
Both City and United need positive results entering the 10th round of the Premier League. With a victory, United would claw to within one point of Man City and, conceivably, back into England’s coveted top four. City, currently in third, already sits six points behind title favorite Chelsea. Although it may be too early to eliminate either team’s season goals, dropping points would hurt City’s hopes to retain the league title and, likewise, harm United’s goal of returning to the Champions League.
On the subject of scoring goals, you can expect to see plenty of them on Sunday. The reasons are Sergio Aguero and Wayne Rooney.
Aguero and Rooney, two of the top scorers in the league, are particularly lethal in this city rivalry. Although Edin Dzeko and Robin van Persie have scorched the score sheets in spurts, the consistent difference makers for City and United, respectively, have been Aguero and Rooney.
Aguero is into his fourth season at the Etihad, and the Argentine has already tallied nine goals in nine league appearances during the 2014-15 campaign. Since joining the Citizens from Atletico Madrid in 2011, “Kun” has scored well over once every two matches with 61 goals in 96 Premier League appearances.
Rooney, who expects to return Sunday from a three-match ban for idiotically kicking-out on an opponent, has strikingly similar numbers over that same stretch of time. Since the start of the 2011-12 campaign, “Wazza” has collected 59 goals in 96 Premier League appearances.
Considering both forwards notched 17 league goals in the 2013-14 season, a two-goal difference over three-plus seasons hardly makes a strong argument in either direction. Assists, however, provide greater insight.
Since Aguero moved to Manchester, he has directly created 16 goals but failed to reach double figures in assists in any of his three complete seasons. On the other hand, Rooney has tallied 10 assists in each of the last two seasons and has directly provided the vital penultimate touch 26 times since the start of the 2011-12 season.
About a quarter of the way through the 2014-15 campaign, the Argentine still hasn’t broken his duck in the assists column. Meanwhile, England’s captain has already tallied two assists under new United boss Louis van Gaal despite playing three fewer games.
Under the magnifying glass of the Manchester derby, both players again share stunning similarities, statistically. Aguero and Rooney have each notched five goals in the rivalry matches over the past three seasons. Including the 2011 FA Cup, these teams have met seven times over that stretch of time. Dissecting the numbers, the Argentine found clear sight of goal on three of those five occasions at the Etihad – site of the Sunday’s encounter. Two of those three home goals came in this exact fixture during the 2013-14 season.
Conversely, Rooney has scored all five of his derby goals since 2011 as a visitor. Going back to the memorable, overhead, match-winning goal in December of 2011, Rooney has only traveled to the Etihad one time since the start of the 2011-12 season and failed to beat City’s defense. He even scored United’s lone goal at the Etihad under failed manager David Moyes.
So on Sunday at the Etihad, goals are on the menu because Aguero and Rooney are two master chefs who can cook a mouthwatering fixture.
Shahan Ahmed has covered the 2014 World Cup, 2013 Confederations Cup, English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Germany Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and Spanish La Liga for Yahoo! Sports. Follow Shahan on Twitter: @ShahanLA
