History supports Jamie Vardy’s claim for the Golden Boot
Published:
Jamie Vardy’s goal in Leicester’s 3-2 win over West Brom last weekend meant the Englishman has now scored in eight consecutive Premier League games.
The former Fleetwood man is now level with only Ruud van Nistelrooy and Daniel Sturridge in achieving that feat, and Vardy is just two shy of Van Nistelrooy’s record of 10 from 2003.
The Foxes striker is on 11 for the season after his strike at the Hawthorns, and has a four-goal lead on the chasing pack in the race for the Golden Boot.
Vardy’s second-half effort saw his odds to be the Premier League’s top scorer cut once more, coming in from 6/1 last week to his latest price of 7/2.
Incredibly the 28-year-old was 80/1 in mid-September, but he now has more goals at this stage of the year than any other Premier League player this century.
Kevin Phillips bagged 13 times by this point in 1999, but since then no player has struck more than 10 times.
Last season’s top scorer Sergio Aguero – still 5/2 favourite this year – had 10 this time last season, but the year before that Luis Suarez had just six at this stage.
Robin van Persie had just seven en route to the 2012-13 Golden Boot, while Dimitar Berbatov scored just six times by this stage in his Golden Boot-winning 2010-2011 season.
All in all, this fairytale story is increasingly becoming a reality show.
The former non-league player isn’t the first unusual name to be at the goalscoring sharp end in early November, Kevin Nolan in 2010-11 and Amr Zaki (remember him?) in 2008-09 have enjoyed fruitful early-season spells in front of goal, but there’s no reason why Vardy can’t continue his stunning run.
The Foxes have netted in every Premier League game this season and that doesn’t look like ending too soon with fixtures against Watford, Newcastle and a home tie with Manchester United coming up.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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