Premier League stats: Prolific partners, goal droughts & possession problems

There is a new prolific Premier League strike partnership on the prowl.

Manchester City’s free-scoring front men have started the season brilliantly – but how do they compare to the deadliest partnerships in the history of the league?

In contrast, teams in London cannot find the net, while the weekend games suggested that possession does not necessarily equal points.

BBC Sport analyses the most interesting statistics from the latest action in the Premier League.

Can City slickers become top duo?

With the evolution of false nines, inverted wingers and hard-working solo forwards, it appeared the days of traditional Premier League strike partnerships were behind us.

And when Gabriel Jesus arrived at Manchester City from Palmeiras last season, Pep Guardiola said he intended to play the young Brazilian in a wide role.

But while the 20-year-old has since impressed his boss as a “nine”, he has stiff competition for that spot from Sergio Aguero, who has scored 175 goals since joining City in 2011.

Guardiola’s solution? Play them both. It has proved an inspired choice.

“We scored a lack of goals last season so we thought that maybe they should play together,” Guardiola told BBC Sport after his side hammered Watford 6-0 on Saturday, with Aguero netting a hat-trick and Jesus also on the scoresheet.

Yorke and Cole and Shearer and Sutton
Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole scored a combined 35 Premier League goals for Manchester United in 1998-99, while Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton netted 49 during Blackburn’s 1994-95 success
BBC Sport football analyst Garth Crooks says the South American duo remind him of a partnership formed on the other side of Manchester.

“Aguero and Jesus are looking formidable together and developing a striking partnership I’ve not seen since the days of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, and we all know what they accomplished,” said former Spurs forward Crooks.

Cole and Yorke scored 53 goals between them in all competitions as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side won the treble in 1998-99, but how do Aguero and Jesus compare to that pair as well as the Premier League’s other most prolific partnerships?

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