A Look at Wayne Rooney, Sergio Aguero and Europe's Top Goal Scorers Thus Far

It's been an exciting weekend, with the top footballing stories revolving heavily around Wayne Rooney's second consecutive EPL hat trick and Sergio Aguero's own trio of goals to help the other Manchester side secure another decisive win over Wigan Athletic.

With Rooney now at eight goals in four games and Aguero close behind with six, they both seem set to make impressive runs for the golden boot by the end of the season.

But what about the rest of Europe? Which players are leading the pack this year in their respective leagues, ready to make a run at glory?

Here is a look at some of Europe's top goal-scorers at the club level thus far and everybody who has started the season off right.

AJ Auxerre may barely be sitting in the top half of the French Ligue 1 table, but they have the luxury of featuring the league's current top goal scorer, Alain Traoré.

Traoré has scored five times in four appearances for Auxerre thus far, recording a brace in the club's last match against AC Ajaccio to secure the victory.

There's no telling whether or not the trend will continue, but at his current pace, Traoré currently holds a coveted position as the most scoring player in one of the world's best leagues.

In five matches for Eredivisie's FC Twente so far this season, Austrian forward Marc Janko has scored six times to put Twente in third place on the Dutch table.

Moreover, Janko has scored in every league match for Twente, providing the consistency required to likely keep Twente in the top three for months to come.

Last season, Janko recorded 14 goals in 22 appearances for Twente to land them a position in the top two and secure another season of Champions League football for the club.

With just over one goal per match this time around, Janko seems set to out-perform those figures and perhaps establish himself as the league's top scorer this season.

Currently rivaling Janko for the top Eredivisie goal-scorer slot is Belgian forward Dries Mertens of PSV Eindhoven.

With six goals to his name as well, Mertens has appeared in fewer matches than Janko, averaging 1.5 goals per game.

Like Janko, Mertens has scored in every league match he's featured in thus far, along with a late-August hat trick to add to his tally.

If I'm being perfectly honest with you, Lionel Messi's placement on this list right now is little more than a formality, as he currently sits in seventh place in the La Liga goal-scoring stat-sheet.

Still, as a list devoted to shining the spotlight on those expected (or currently looking) to emerge as Europe's top club-level goal-scoring presences in 2011-12, it would be irresponsible to not give Messi a nod.

In all likelihood, Messi will climb to a spot in La Liga's top two in the coming weeks. And really, one goal per game as an average thus far is hardly what I would call underperforming.

Tied with Ronaldo after two league games, Valencia's Roberto Soldado is enjoying the best season start of his career.

Soldado is currently averaging two goals per game in La Liga, including an opening-match hat trick against Racing Santandar to help Valencia barely edge them 4-3.

The only question is whether or not Soldado can keep the pace. As it stands, he's certainly earned his nod as one of the best scorers in the opening stages of European football.

Once again, Cristiano Ronaldo is starting off strong for Real Madrid, with four goals and an assist for the Spanish giants in La Liga. And that's just in the first two matches of the season.

Last season, Ronaldo led the Spanish top flight with 40 total goals in 32 matches, nine more than Barcelona rival Lionel Messi.

This season, Ronaldo is already enjoying the lead once again with twice as many goals, as Messi, who is currently averaging a pathetic (I'm joking) one goal per game in his first two matches.

Prior to Manchester City's EPL match against Tottenham Hotspur, one commentator knew that Sergio Aguero would be guaranteed to give Spurs grief.

"Don't give Aguero an inch," he warned. Instead, it was suggested that Spurs should "let the big, goofy Dzeko shoot" instead.

That suggestion is remarkably accurate to the way Tottenham approached the match, and the result was a four-goal night for Dzeko. With two goals already to his name prior to that night, Dzeko brought his tally up to six as one of the league's leading scorers thus far.

After Dzeko's night of glory, it was Aguero's turn to light up the pitch.

With Dzeko left off of the starting lineup, Aguero stepped up to demonstrate why Manchester City fought so eagerly to secure him in the summer months.

City scored three goals against Wigan, all three from Aguero, who brought his tally up to six to join Dzeko in the second-place spot for the league's top goal-scorer.

It's easy to see why Bayern Munich is once again at the top of the German Bundesliga table, with 16 goals already scored in five league matches.

Leading their squad in that effort: German international Mario Gomez, with eight goals in those five appearances.

In yesterday's match against SC Freiburg, Gomez found the back of the net four times to secure his spot as the league's top goal-scorer thus far by a rather large margin.

Still, even in averaging one goal per match prior to Saturday's 7-0 romp of Freiburg, Gomez was on track to be one of Europe's best in 2011-12.

With eight goals in four matches, Wayne Rooney has so far found the back of the net more times than 18 out of 20 Premier League clubs.

For the record, that says clubs, not players.

Rooney has scored back to back hat tricks in his last two EPL matches and is on track to shatter his own tallies, and everyone else's tallies, from last season.

In the last campaign, Rooney lacked the form that we've seen from the England star in years past. This year, there is no doubt in anybody's mind that Wayne Rooney is back and ready to traumatize defenders for months to come.