Between 1927 and 1939, roaming outside-left Eric Brook registered 177 goals over 491 matches for Manchester City, setting a scoring record that went untroubled for 78 years.

Now, despite playing in five fewer seasons and just 264 matches, Sergio Aguero has surpassed that high by netting his 178th for City on Wednesday.

And what a moment to achieve the feat. In an excellent to-and-fro encounter at Napoli’s Stadio San Paolo, Aguero planted a finish into the bottom corner after a 69th-minute counter-attack.

Aguero had equalled Brook’s record in Oct. 21’s 3-0 stroll past Burnley.

Related: How Guardiola’s reimagining of Aguero revives his South American roots

Aguero hit the ground running in the northwest, scoring twice against Swansea City in his 2011 debut. And by the end of that season, Aguero firmly established himself in English football’s history books. The Argentinian slowed down time to skip through outstretched limbs and rifle past Queens Park Rangers’ Paddy Kenny to clinch the club’s first league title in 44 years – sweetly snatching it from the grasp of archrival Manchester United with seconds remaining – and test the vocal chords of commentator Martin Tyler.

There have been plenty of other moments during Aguero’s City stint that will be recalled long after he completes an expected triumphant homecoming to Independiente, his first club based in the province of Buenos Aires. City fans will remember his acute-angle goal past Liverpool’s Pepe Reina in 2013, his hat trick to secure a late victory over Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich in 2014, and his five-goal haul to thump Newcastle United in 2015.

In little over six years, Aguero has staved off striking competition from Tevez, Dzeko, and Balotelli, and Stevan Jovetic, Alvaro Negredo, Wilfried Bony, and Kelechi Iheanacho. And despite a perceived “difficult” relationship between Aguero and the team’s newest striking addition, Gabriel Jesus, it’s potentially evolving into the most cohesive partnership yet.

At 29, there’s plenty of time for Aguero to distance himself for much longer than the 78-year cushion Brook enjoyed.

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Case Keenum tells reporters that he’s a big Teddy Bridgewater fan and says that he raises the “cool factor of the quarterback group.”

LANDOVER, Maryland — The Minnesota Vikings are 7-2 and Case Keenum has started seven of the games as their quarterback.

You had that, right? Back in August, when you were making your NFL season predictions, you had the Vikings at 7-2 with Keenum the quarterback? Sure you did.

You probably also had the New Orleans Saints at 7-2, rolling into Buffalo in Week 10 and hanging 47 on the No. 6-ranked scoring defense without a single Drew Brees touchdown pass.

And you had both of those teams a game behind the 8-1 Philadelphia Eagles, with the Los Angeles Rams duking it out atop the NFC West with the Seattle Seahawks and the Carolina Panthers comfortably between those first-place Saints and the third-place Atlanta Falcons in the South.

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If you did predict all of this — heck, if you predicted any of it — we’d like your thoughts on this week’s lottery numbers. And by “we,” I mean me and Case Keenum, who seems as amused about what’s going on with him and the Vikings as anyone.

“Just feels good, is all,” Keenum said after throwing for 304 yards, four touchdowns and two keep-em-in-the-game second-half interceptions in the Vikings’ 38-30 victory over Washington here Sunday. “I love this squad, I love this team, I love this offense, I love these coaches and we’re having fun.”

Yeah, 7-2 is fun, no doubt, and the Vikings are feeling no pain right now. They’ve won five games in a row, increasing their point total each week, and hold a two-game lead in the NFC North on both the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers. This past week, they put Week 1 starting quarterback Sam Bradford on injured reserve and activated former starter Teddy Bridgewater. The latter’s return to the starting lineup might feel like a foregone conclusion to lots of folks around the team, and certainly to most on the outside. But career backup Keenum doesn’t seem too bothered by any of it.

“Teddy’s a fan favorite. He’s my favorite, too,” Keenum said. “I may have a Teddy Bridgewater jersey at home. Teddy definitely raises the cool factor of the quarterback group. Tremendously.”

That’s Keenum, talking about the guy everybody thinks is about to take his job. That’s where the Vikings are right now. They’re 7-2 and don’t seem all the way sure about how.

“Case played outstanding,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said, then in the next breath, “I wish the two throws he had in the second half he would not have made. But you know, he’s an excitable guy and he needs to understand what are the good plays and what are the bad plays sometimes.”

Said Keenum the Excitable: “I need to not make a bad play worse. I gave them a couple of gifts.”

You wonder, looking ahead, how long this can last. The Vikings play two very tough games in the next 11 days — home this Sunday to the first-place Rams and then at Detroit on Thanksgiving. Two straight road games in Atlanta and Carolina follow that, and by the time they’re through that gauntlet we’ll have some better idea about how good the Vikings are, what their best option is at quarterback and what their chances are of becoming the first team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium.

It’s not crazy to imagine this team as a real contender. The Vikings made the playoffs as division champs two years ago and started 5-0 last season before a brutal run of injury attrition on the offensive line cost them any chance of making good on that. They hit the line hard in free agency, brought back the core of a smothering defense, and their wide receiver duo of Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs makes a case as the very best in the NFL. You could convince yourself that they’re a quarterback away, but the way Keenum’s playing, that may be underselling them.

“Yeah, wins, they all count the same,” Vikings safety Harrison Smith said. “Obviously, from a defensive side, we don’t want to give up that many points, so there’s a lot of work to be done there. But a win’s a win. We did enough to win.”

Tottenham Hotspur escaped the Group of Death, and then some.

On Wednesday, Tottenham laughed at those who thought Spurs would be unable to reach the Champions League knockout phase, defeating Real Madrid 3-1 at Wembley Stadium to qualify for the tournament’s last 16. It was a phenomenal night for the English club, which outplayed Los Blancos in all aspects of the game and could have scored more than three goals.

Dele Alli, who made his first appearance in the Champions League this season and endured a bumpy start to the campaign, overshadowed Harry Kane, who was returning from a hamstring problem. The English midfielder opened the scoring in the 27th minute, one-timing the ball into the back of the net after Nacho needlessly produced a throw-in, although the assistant referee failed to note that Kieran Trippier was in an offside position.

Alli then doubled Tottenham’s lead in the 56th minute, beating Casemiro twice and striking the ball past Kiko Casilla via a deflection off Sergio Ramos. Spurs’ third was produced by Christian Eriksen, while Cristiano Ronaldo scored what proved to be nothing more than a consolation goal for Madrid.

“It was a fantastic performance from us,” Alli said, according to the Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg. “We knew if we stuck to the game plan and stayed solid at the back, we would have a lot of chances. We spoke after the game at their place and couldn’t believe the space we had. The easy pass was sometimes too obvious at times. We don’t want to compete with these teams, we want to be winning.”

Tottenham’s last adventure in Europe – in which Spurs were eliminated from the Champions League in the group stage and subsequently tasted defeat to KAA Gent in the Europa League – now feels like a distant memory.

Lance Dunbar was added to the Los Angeles Rams’ active roster Saturday and is expected to serve as the new backup for star running back Todd Gurley, a need in the wake of Malcolm Brown’s recent knee injury.

Dunbar, who spent the previous five seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, was signed as a free agent but missed the entirety of the offseason program and training camp because of a pre-existing knee issue. He began the year on the physically unable to perform list, but has been practicing with the Rams over the last two weeks.

Dunbar won’t have much of a workload, given that Gurley ranks third in the NFL with 190 touches and gadget receiver Tavon Austin has acted as something of a change-of-pace running back. But Dunbar has proven to be effective catching passes out of the backfield and could also play a role on special teams.