The Sergio Agüero hype train hit new levels this week, after a couple of hat-tricks in big games for Manchester City, but the claims he’s surpassed Thierry Henry are a step too far.

The argument doing the rounds at the moment is as follows: Sergio Agüero has scored 160 goals in 229 Premier League games, a goal every 1.43 games, whilst Thierry Henry only scored 176 in 258, a goal every 1.46 games. Therefore, Agüero is better.

Anyone who watched both players live should already know how flawed this conclusion is, but let’s stick to stats for the sake of argument.

Agüero may be slightly ahead on the goals-per-game front as it stands, but he’s way behind on assists. His 41 in 229 games, one every 5.59 games, doesn’t come close to Henry’s 74 in 258, one every 3.49. The Argentine striker would have to get more than an assist every game between now and his 258th to catch the ex-Arsenal man.

Then you look at the individual awards. Henry was a dominant goalscorer in his era, winning the Golden Boot four times in eight seasons. Agüero has only won the award once so far, as he comes towards the end of his eighth year as well.

Perhaps Agüero is scoring more goals nowadays, but so are all the top strikers. It’s not as much of an achievement to get 25 goals today, as someone has done it every year the 30-year-old has been in England. A player has scored 25 goals in a single PL campaign 10 times in Agüero’s seven seasons, and he’s done it just once.

Back in Henry’s era it only happened five times in eight years, and three of those times he was the one that did it.

Henry won the Premier League Player of the Season award twice, whilst Agüero hasn’t won it yet. The Frenchman was also the league’s top assist provider in 2002/03 (and the current record holder for the most assists in a season), something Agüero has never achieved.

Henry made the PFA Team of the Year six times to Agüero’s one so far, and the UEFA Team of the Year five times, another accolade Agüero is yet to achieve once. Although the former Gunner never lifted the Ballon d’Or, he came much closer than his City rival, finishing runner-up in 2003 and third place in 2006.

Arsenal’s record goalscorer wasn’t just the best striker of his Premier League era, he was the best player. That’s something that’s very rarely been true of Agüero, and until it is, let’s stop acting like the two centre-forwards are on the same level.