Everyone loves to see goals. Whether you’re surrounded by fans in the stadium or watching at home on the television, few things in football compare to seeing the net bulge and the goal scorer wheeling away in celebrating.
Natural goalscorers are something of a rarity, which is why they command huge transfer fees and wages; after all, goals win you games. Below we feature a quintet of strikers who are either going to be in contention for the Premier League Golden Boot, or have an outside chance if they manage to stay fit.
Sergio Aguero: +225 to win the Golden Boot
Prediction: Golden Boot Winner
Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, who finished second in scoring last season, is the bookmaker’s favourite to claim 2016-17 Premier League Golden Boot accolade.
Aguero potted 24 goals last season from only 30 appearances and enjoyed the best goals-to-minutes ratio of any player in the Premier League. The Argentinian already has three goals to his name this season, and we believe that whoever scores more goals than Aguero this season will win the Golden Boot. If that’s even possible.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic: +350 to win the Golden Boot
Prediction: Top 3
Most footballers slow down at during the twilight years of their careers, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not like most footballers. Last season, at 34 years old, the controversial Swede scored 38 goals in 31 league games for Paris Saint-Germain, and 50 goals in 51 games in all competitions. We’re not saying he can be that prolific in the Premier League but we wouldn’t put anything past the scoring phenom.
Ibrahimovic has only scored less than 20 league goals in only one of the last five seasons, and even then he netted 19 times. Ibrahimovic has already scored three goals for Manchester United, so it is easy to see why the bookies make him the second-favourite for the Golden Boot. We think he’ll finish in the top three and is worth a punt to be at the top of the goal-scoring pile come season’s end.
Harry Kane: +1000 to win the Golden Boot
Prediction: Top 5
Thanks to scoring 25 league goals last season, Harry Kane is the reigning Golden Boot winner. He isn’t in the best form of his career, having not scored in the past six league games, including the first four games of the 2016-17 season, but Spurs’ talismanic should still finish amongst the top five scorers.
It took Kane seven games in the 2015-16 season to register his first goal and he still went on to claim the Golden Boot. So don’t pin too much on his early season form. The goals will come as he’s too good in front of goal to go through an even longer barren spell. The +1000 odds available now look like a bargain so jump on it while you can.
Romelu Lukaku: +2500 to win the Golden Boot
Prediction: Top 5 if he stays in England
Lukaku, since the end of last season, has been linked with moves away from Everton and the Premier League, which makes betting on the huge Belgian a true gamble. He’ll score goals and will contend for the title if he stays, but we don’t think he’s worth the risk.
Daniel Sturridge: +3300 to win the Golden Boot
Prediction: Top 10
Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge is arguably the most natural goal scorer in the Premier League, but, and it is a huge but, he simply does not play enough games to win this coveted crown. It seems like he’s perpetually injured or not in game shape. His confidence is often shaky and Klopp doesn’t consistently prefer the enigmatic striker.
Sturridge bagged eight goals in 14 games last season, but only played 12 games the season before that. Sturridge has only managed to play more than 14 league games in a single season once since 2012-13.
If he can stay fit this season, the +3300 odds on him winning the Golden Boot are astronomical. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to agree with Bovada on this one. He’s too unpredictable and disappoints more often than not.