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Premier League stats: Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling & hat-tricks

  /  autty

Remember when Harry Kane just could not score a goal in August? It seems a long time ago now.

The England captain has scored at least 17 goals in each of the past five Premier League seasons, but failed to find the net in the first 14 games he played in the month of August - a run that lasted for 1,065 minutes over five seasons.

Nothing lasts forever and that streak ended on the opening weekend of last season when he scored in the 3-1 win over Fulham on 18 August 2018, and again nine days later in a 3-0 win at Manchester United.

There is to be no August angst this year either as Kane scored twice in the final four minutes on Saturday as Spurs fought back from a goal down to defeat Aston Villa 3-1 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

However, it was no surprise that he found the back of the net against Villa as he has now scored six times in six appearances against them.

Tottenham have also won 37 Premier League games after finding themselves behind at half-time - more than any other side.

Kane could still do with boosting that goal-to-game ratio in August, though, as it remains his worst month for scoring. Manchester City and Newcastle are the other sides he could face this month.

Sterling work from Sterling

It was also a good weekend for Kane's England colleague Raheem Sterling, who scored a hat-trick as champions Manchester City began their campaign by thumping West Ham 5-0 at London Stadium.

He became the eighth player to score a hat-trick on the opening weekend of a Premier League campaign, but the first since Didier Drogba grabbed a treble in Chelsea's 6-0 win over West Brom at the start of 2010-11.

Sterling's second goal was his 50th in the league for City as he became the sixth player to reach the milestone for the club after Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure, Carlos Tevez, David Silva and Edin Dzeko.

It also lifted Sterling up to equal 25th in the list of Premier League hat-trick scorers, but he has got a long way to go to match Aguero and Alan Shearer's total of 11.

Sterling's treble was the 24th Premier League hat-trick by a City player, lifting the club up to joint fourth in that list, but still 15 behind Arsenal and Liverpool.