Sunday 28 February 2016 16:18, UK
The first silverware of the season will be decided on Sunday as Liverpool meet Manchester City in the Capital One Cup final.
With cup finals often tense and tight affairs, the performances on the day of Manchester City's Sergio Aguero and Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge could go a long way to deciding which team is celebrating at Wembley on Sunday evening.
Daniel Sturridge's Liverpool career has been hampered by injuries since he scored seven minutes into his debut in a 3-1 FA Cup win at Mansfield in January 2013. Since his debut, Sturridge has started 62 of Liverpool's 165 games in all competitions due to a variety of injuries. In the last 18 months the figures make even worse reading for Liverpool supporters as he has made only 16 starts in their last 98 games.
It's significant too. Liverpool have suffered only nine defeats in Sturridge's 62 starts, winning 65 per cent of those games. Without him starting, the Reds' win percentage drops to only 41 per cent and they average nearly a goal less per game.
Jurgen Klopp will hope that Sturridge's return from his latest hamstring injury will be prolonged. He has made his first consecutive starts since March 2015 and has three goals in four starts under the German.
Despite spells out with hamstring and heel injuries, Aguero has once again been in excellent form this season scoring 19 goals for Manuel Pellegrini's men. He has the best minutes-to-goal ratio in all competitions among Premier League players this season, scoring every 106 minutes. His form in front of goal in 2016 has been equally impressive with a tally of 10 in 11 appearances.
Since joining the City revolution in 2011, Aguero has plundered 126 goals, more than any other Premier League player in this period. In fact, no other Premier League player has managed to bring up three figures with Wayne Rooney's 97 goals the next best.
He is now 11th on the all-time list of Manchester City scorers and it will surely be only a matter of time before he overhauls leading scorer Eric Book's tally of 178 goals.
Since moving to Europe 10 years ago, the 27-year-old Argentine has scored 227 goals combined for Atletico Madrid and Man City, but one thing has eluded him: a goal in a cup final.
He is yet to find the net in four cup final appearances including the 2013 FA Cup and 2014 League Cup finals for City. His only Wembley goal was in the 2013 FA Cup semi-final win over Chelsea.
Manchester City will have an excellent chance of lifting the Capital One Cup on Sunday if Aguero can break his duck. While in the red corner, Jurgen Klopp will be hoping that a fit and firing Daniel Sturridge can lead Liverpool to their first trophy in four years.
