By K.C. Weldon
We’re only a few weeks in to the 2018-19 Premier League season and already a new style of play seems to be the order of the day for a number of clubs. At least four goals per game seems to be becoming the new normal – and in some matches this has even happened before the half time whistle’s been blown.
For fans this means the games promise to be more exciting and action-packed than ever with the boring 0-0 draw becoming, if not extinct, at least an endangered species.
For the players, and strikers in particular, it could mean that scoring records are meant to be broken, like Mohamed Salah did last season. So who’s going to be the player who takes home the prestigious Golden Boot come May?
Betting sites are already showing some clear favorites, while a number of the usual candidates already seem to have quite a lot of catching up to do. After the first five games, all of which Liverpool have won, Salah’s not had a terrible start – he’s scored twice – but he’s certainly off the pace. He’s had plenty of scoring opportunities but just hasn’t converted most of them into goals.
Runner up in the goal-scoring table last season was Harry Kane with 30. While his stature among fans undoubtedly rose during England’s World Cup campaign, he seems to have lost his mojo for the moment.
It could all be a hangover from the time in Russia, especially now that questions are being asked about how well England really did. Or perhaps the pressure of living up to really high expectations is getting to him.
After five league matches Kane has scored twice but the real worry comes from the fact that he’s only had 12 shots on goal this season, compared with the 34 he’d had at the same point last season. If you’re a glass half full kind of person you’ll say this makes for a great shot to scoring ratio. Ot it could indicate a major drop in form.
The one player who really has gotten off to a flyer, with five goals in as many games, is Eden Hazard who has registered 75% of his shots on target. So already he’s nearly half way to scoring the 12 goals he notched up last season and Chelsea are riding high in the table.
Of course, as you hardly need to be reminded, it’s very early to be predicting how the goal scorers’ table will look in eight months’ time and it’s a brave, or foolish, person who’d even try!
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