Less than eight games to go
But who'll join the list of illustrious names such as Shearer, Henry and er Dimitar Berbatov?
The narrative of football would suggest that if a player scores the most goals for his team in a season, his team will win the league. That’s not the case in England however, in just 9 of the 24 years of the Premier League has the Golden Boot winner come from the champions, most recently in 2012-13 with Robin Van Persie.
The Best League In The World (Shush The Bundesliga Doesn’t Exist) (c) Sky Sports is heading towards the final furlong, and these five men are looking to put their names in the history books.
Harry Kane – 21
Spurs’ talisman took a while to get going in the 2015-16 season not scoring until the seventh game of the year against Manchester City. A hat-trick against Bournemouth two weeks later and England’s lead striker heading to France in the summer was off and running. He’s already equaled last year’s tally with a brace against Bournemouth at the weekend.
Seven games to go. A slight problem is that Kane has only scored once against thee seven teams combined this season – in the game vs Southampton just before Christmas. He’s a home bird, scoring more at White Hart Lane than he has away from home.
123 attempts so far this season is the most of the participants in the race though which makes Kane a worthy favorite at. Games against Chelsea, Liverpool and United will test those odds though.
Jamie Vardy – 19
Even if Jamie Vardy doesn’t win the golden boot, he’s got a flavor of crisps named after him so who’s the real winner? After breaking Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s record of scoring for 11 straight games, Vardy then went seven in a row drawing blanks in front of goal.
It allowed his team mates to take up a bit of the work, which they have done and that’s why Leicester’s fairy tale is coming true. The Foxes have arguably the easiest run in bar their final three games, but it hasn’t stopped Vardy before this season – braces against Southampton, and one apiece vs Sunderland, Man United and Chelsea.
He’s had a party, he’s banged anyone who’s chatted excrement, but can he top off Leicester’s dream season by becoming their golden booted Cinderella at odds of
Romelu Lukaku – 18
Romelu Lukaku is a large man. We don’t dare to take the mickey out of him because he’d probably climb up Power Tower’s walls, punch the window in and simultaneously kill all of the sexy beasts on the PP Blog team. Only 22 and already has 93 league goals, 33 of which have come in the Premier League.
His 53% shot accuracy this season is the lowest of the contenders though and five straight games without a goal in January hurt his cause big time. Another problem for the Belgian is in his next four games he faces four of the top five keepers for clean sheets -David De Gea , Huerelho Gomes, Fraser Forster and Simon Mignolet (yes really).
Lukaku has 4 goals with his head, and he’ll need to use the thing inside it if he wants to claw back the deficit and become the youngest player in 17 years to take the boot at .
Sergio Aguero – 16
Aguero has played the fewest games of the contenders by some distance (22 appearances for the Argentinian) and yet still has a very good chance of grabbing the boot sitting at time of writing on 16. He finds the net on average every 100 minutes in this year’s campaign.
Yes, half of those 16 have come against the current bottom three (including five against Newcastle). Home games against West Brom, Stoke and a trip to St.James’ Park are his best chances of getting the goals to retain his crown from last year. We all know his ability to tap the turbo in a game but City just look disinterested now.
Will a date with PSG in the Champions League mean that Super Sergio could be rested by Pellegrini thus damaging his target? His odds of reflect that.
Riyad Mahrez – 16
Only one African has ever won the Golden Boot – Didier Drogba did it twice before jetting off to China. But no midfielder has ever won the award and that is where Riyad Mahrez has the chance to make history. He was the one who picked up the slack when Vardy’s form dropped and but for a couple of missed penalties, he’d be higher in the charts.
He is quite literally a fox in the box as all 16 of his strikes this season have come inside the area, including his latest at the weekend against Palace. His 63% shot accuracy puts the other four to shame. Not only that he is comfortably the most fouled of the five (65 – 6 of which have been inside the box). Jamie Vardy’s party was probably organized by Mahrez – the majority of his 11 assists have been to the striker.
Leicester have won 60% of their games in which Mahrez has played. He’s netted NINE goals against the teams Leicester still have to play. When he’s scored this season, Leicester are unbeaten. He’s the outsider of the five at
With the European Championships coming up in June it is very interesting to note that if Kane or Vardy can hold off the competition, they’ll become the first English player to win the Golden Boot since Kevin Phillips in 2000. Phillips was named in Kevin Keegan’s squad for the Euros that year but didn’t play a minute. Would Roy Hodgson be foolish enough to repeat that mistake?