Sergio Aguero could beat Alan Shearer’s record of 260 goals to become the Premier League’s greatest ever marksman, according to Manchester City teammate Bernardo Silva.
The Argentine forward scored the 148th goal of his Premier League career for City in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Brighton, equalling Shearer’s tally for Newcastle.
The pair are joint third in the list of highest goalscorers for a single club behind Thierry Henry for Arsenal (175) and Wayne Rooney for Manchester United (183).
Both of those marks should be well within reach for Aguero, potentially even this season, but to threaten Shearer’s overall mark of 260 he would almost certainly need to further extend his contract at the Etihad, which runs until 2021.
“Sergio is the best scorer in Manchester City’s history,” said midfielder Silva. “He’s a legend not only for Manchester City but also for the Premier League, if not the best striker in the world then one of the best.
“It’s great to have him with us. Every season he scores 30 goals or more. To have a player like him it helps us so much.”
“Everyone hopes he stays,” he added. “If he reaches that level it will be even better because everyone knows how important Alan Shearer was for English football and for the Premier League.
“I think he can reach it (the record). He’s got the potential. Every season he keeps scoring more and more. We hope he can keep helping us win more titles here in Manchester.”
City returned to the top of the table on goal difference thanks to their victory against Brighton while Liverpool dropped their first points in a 1-1 draw with Chelsea.
The top two teams — both undefeated — meet next Sunday at Anfield.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will speak to the press later ahead of tomorrow’s Champions League tie at Hoffenheim.
City go into the game on the back of a professional 2-0 win over Brighton at the weekend, but know how crucial a win in Germany will be after losing their opening Group F game against Lyon.
Sergio Aguero is an injury concern ahead of the game, with Guardiola admitting at the weekend that City are managing his playing time as the striker plays through a heel problem. The hope is that he will make it through to the international break so he can be assessed.
Benjamin Mendy is another doubt, having missed the last four fixtures with a knee injury. Fabian Delph and Oleksandr Zinchenko have deputised in his absence, with the latter impressing against Brighton.
Sergio Aguero is “not 100 per cent” despite his fine form for Manchester City, with Pep Guardiola revealing that the Argentine is nursing a foot problem.
The Sky Blues’ all-time leading goalscorer has offered little indication over recent weeks that he is not fully fit.
A sixth goal of the season was recorded against Brighton on Saturday, with the South American taking in 65 minutes before being replaced by Gabriel Jesus.
Guardiola admits he had to take Aguero off in order to edge him closer to the next international break, with City having to carefully manage a niggling knock to their star striker.
He told reporters after a 2-0 victory over Brighton: “Sergio is struggling a bit with some problems in his foot.
“He is not 100 per cent. He has not recovered from what happened against Newcastle and we spoke about playing about 60 minutes and we were lucky he scored at the right moment.”
City have two games to take in before reaching the next break in domestic competition. Guardiola is hoping to have Aguero available to him for both of those fixtures, but concedes that the 30-year-old frontman may not be able to take in so much football in a short space of time.