Premier League: No Man City striker will be top scorer

Sergio Aguero has never won a league top scorer award

Michael Lintorn lists five reasons to swerve Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and co in your top goalscorer betting...

Man City have plenty of horses in the Premier League Top Goalscorer race: Sergio Aguero is the 7.87/1 second favourite, Edin Dzeko is seventh in line at 19.5n/a, Yaya Toure is 12th at 42.041/1 and Alvaro Negredo occupied similar airspace before a broken foot booted him out to 75.074/1.

However, there are several reasons why none of those guys should feature in your punting portfolio...

Injuries
With 52 goals in 73 starts, Aguero has the Premier League strike rate to suggest constant candidacy, but he lacks the fitness record to support it, managing just 42 starts over the entirety of the past two campaigns. Likewise, Negredo's 23 goals in all competitions last term are overshadowed by the knowledge that he will definitely miss the first few months through injury.

Rotation
While Aguero and Negredo will be robbed of the minutes required by treatment-table occupancy, Dzeko's issue is that he is rotated more regularly than a roundabout, never starting more than 23 Premier League games in one season. With Stevan Jovetic and - if rumours are to be believed (they aren't) - Didier Drogba to be accommodated too, none of their forwards will have access to the 33-plus starts that Robin van Persie and Luis Suarez required in the past three years to top-score.

Lack of greediness
Man City have been the most prolific Premier League side in two of the past three seasons, but none of their players have come closer than seven goals adrift of the top scorer in that time as they are so fond of sharing goals around, with three of their stars hitting double figures in each of those campaigns.

It isn't the Man City way
There isn't much diversity when it comes to supplying Premier League top scorers, with a Liverpool, Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea player topping the charts in each of the past 14 years. Man City haven't been able to muscle in on the elite club even since becoming title-winningly brilliant. Carlos Tevez is their only ever winner, and he tied for the honour with Man United's Dimitar Berbatov in 2010/11, a feat further undermined by his 20 goals being the second-lowest victory mark this century. Besides the Argentine, Man City haven't even provided a top-two finisher.

Golden Boot-lifting inexperience
Though Aguero, Dzeko and Negredo's scoring ratios stand up to the sternest of scrutiny, there is just one prior instance of any of them obtaining divisional top-scorer recognition, when Edin Dzeko outperformed every other Bundesliga attacker in 2009/10 by notching 22 times.