Watch: Player of the Week Sergio Aguero

Manchester City rolled 2-0 in the season opener at Arsenal, but Sergio Aguero had an uncharacteristically quiet game. In fact, when it came to Kun, he was best remembered not for something that he did, but for what he did not do. Given a 1 v 1 breakaway against Petr Cech, Aguero failed either to score what seemed like a gimme to someone of his usual finishing quality, or to square a simple pass to a streaking Kevin De Bruyne who surely would have tapped the ball into an open net.

But as we all well know, you can’t keep a good man, or a great striker, down. Most of us had a feeling that Kun would explode with the visit of Huddersfield, and boy did he ever. After scoring the first hat trick of the Premier League season and adding a fantasy assist (though not in the official record) for good measure, that leaves Manchester City’s shining star with 146 goals and 35 helpers in 208 games for the Sky Blues.

106 of Aguero’s 146 goals have come with his right foot, compared to only 26 with his left (and 14 for his noggin). Interestingly, the Huddersfield hattie largely departed from that script. The opener at the Etihad started with a wonderful Ederson goal kick that traveled 3/4th of the pitch on an absolute rope, with Aguero following some playful back-and-forth footwork with a deft left-footed touch just outside the box, making keeper Ben Hamer pay for straying from his line and entering no-man’s land in the 25th minute.

Following a Gabriel Jesus goal that made things 2-0, Aguero extended the lead to 3-0 in the 35th minute by taking advantage of another Hamer error, this time pouncing on a spilled cross from Benjamin Mendy and nipping Jon Gorenc Stankovic to the ball with another quick-witted lefty finish. After Stankovic’s late first half goal for the visitors, David Silva made it 4-1 with a beautiful free kick strike early in the second half, earning Aguero the fantasy assist for having drawn the foul.

Not too long thereafter, it was time for Kun to grab his third goal, this time converting an absolutely perfect Mendy cross from the left flank with a fabulous side-footed tap into the corner netting after creating space with a brilliant run deep into the box. This time he finally used his preferred right foot to deliver the goods. The fans’ favorite was immediately subbed off the pitch to a hero’s farewell. Three goals and an “assist” in 75 minutes, not bad, eh?

Aguero now has bagged a whopping nine hat tricks in his distinguished Premier League career. This latest effort sent fantasy managers running across the meadow and picking up lots of forget-me-nots to the tune of:

Official FPL: Three goals, one assist, three bonus points for 20 points (40 if captained).

Fantrax: Three goals, one fantasy assist, nine shots, four shots on target, one foul suffered, one corner forced for 39 points.

Before the season, most fans and pundits were talking up Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Tottenham’s Harry Kane, and Liverpool’s Mo Salah as the most likely winners of the Golden Boot award, but let’s not forget that Kun took that honor in 2014-15. The Sky Blues will undoubtedly score an avalanche of goals this campaign, and the Argentine hitman will take part in more than his fair share when he’s on the pitch. The only question would appear to be: Given that he has failed to crack 2,500 minutes since that magical 2014-15 season, can Kun stay healthy enough (even after Champions League action) to repeat the trick and keep fantasy managers in their delirium the rest of the way?

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Did you have Sergio Aguero in your fantasy teams, or did you miss out? Was he your captain in Official FPL? If you don’t have him, are you adding him immediately or holding off? Let us know in the comments!

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