With all the preview
supplements flooding the news stands and two-bob pred
ictions being handed out by every Wayne, Dirk and Barry, I thought I’d jump on the
bandwagon myself and try to figure out who might finish the season as the top marksm
an in the top division.
Let’s start by looking at
everyone’s favourite Madridista -Fernando Torres. The former Atletico man has bagged an extraordinary 38 goals in 49 league starts since his £26.5m move to Anfield two summers ago.
His talent is undisputed, as is his ability to score on the big occasion, having netted against the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea in the last couple years. Indeed, he scored his very first Liverpool goal against the London team.
The key to Torres topping the pile will be the deployment of Steven Gerrard. The two dovetailed superbly last season as Gerrard was let off the leash by Rafael Benitez, but with Xabi Alonso departing for pastures new it remains to be seen whether Liverpool’s talismanic captain will retain the free role he so relishes.
Then again, if Gerrard is kept in the final third by Benitez then it is not inconceivable that he could outscore his strike partner. He managed a highly respectable 15 goals last campaign and that was without the assistance of Torres for large periods due to the Spaniard’s injury problems.
Add to this the fact that he is Liverpool’s incumbent penalty taker (and is not exactly averse to hitting the ground to win them) and he might be a good outside bet.
Moving along the M62 to Manchester United, there will be much expected of Dimitar Berbatov as he seeks to fill the goal-scoring void left by the prolific Cristiano Ronaldo. Just nine goals in his debut season with the Red Devils was not what Sir Alex Ferguson paid almost £31m for and a 50 percent improvement will be the bare minimum required from the Bulgarian.
His record at Tottenham and Bayer Leverkusen show he is more than capable - with a strike-rate of one in two at both clubs - though perhaps United’s main representative in the table will beWayne Rooney.
The pugnacious Scouser will be chomping at the bit now that he no longer has to compete with a Portuguese winger for the spotlight – unless, of course, a miracle occurs and Nani actually learns how to play football.
Rooney’s achilles heel, though, is that he only ever scores in spurts before hitting a barren patch in front of goal. He will need to hit the back of the net on a more consistent basis if he wants to pick up the Golden Boot.
For Rooney to score all those goals he will have to play more centrally but it might just be that he is once again shunted out onto the flanks to accommodate a certain Michael Owen.
The former Liverpool striker’s goalscoring exploits are well-documented and although he is unlikely to scream past defenders any more, he has always profited from good service, something that is guaranteed at Old Trafford.
Lest we forget, it was Chelsea who fielded last season’s most productive striker in the form of Nicolas Anelka. It was claimed that he was simply a flat-track bully capable only of scoring goals against the likes of Sunderland and West Brom, though he did score in each of his games against Aston Villa as well as his obligatory goal against his former employers, Arsenal.
For the second half of the season he was posted on the right flank and the goals dried up, but on the one occasion that he played in an orthodox partnership with Didier Drogba – a set-up likely to be used this season by Carlo Ancelotti - he scored one and made the other two in the 3-1 home win against Fulham.
It seems, though, that the greater beneficiary of this pairing will be the barnstorming Drogba. His power and ability to hold the ball are assets well known to the football fraternity (as are his Bafta-winning antics closer to the ground) but it has also been proven that as a goal-machine he is more effective in a front two.
The imposing Ivorian was the Premier League’s leading marksman in the 2006-07 season when the purchases of Andrei Shevchenko and Michael Ballack forced then manager Jose Mourinho to play with a diamond in midfield and two strikers.
It may have signalled the end of Chelsea’s league domination but it supplied Drogba with the bullets that fired him to the top of the goalscoring charts and become the first Blues player to hit 20 league goals in a season since Kerry Dixon.
Robin van Persie at Arsenal has always shown form in front of goal, though injuries seem to play a factor every season. The jury is still out on Eduardo – despite having a natural eye for goal – though the departure to Eastlands of Emmanuel Adebayorshould mean that Arsene Wenger will select him in his starting 11 on a more regular basis.
Manchester City have an impressive artillery to choose from but it is as yet unclear who will feature week-to-week out of Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, Robinho, Craig Bellamy and the aforementioned Adebayor.
One player who has not yet been mentioned is Tottenham’sJermain Defoe, who will be gunning for a place in Fabio Capello’s World Cup squad, and a continuation of his career average of a goal every other game could propel him to the top of the standings.
Away from the stellar names, there is always scope for a previously unsung player or one playing for an unfashionable club – Kevin Phillips in 1999-2000 springs to mind - to upset the established order and take the honours against all odds.
However, I feel, predictably, that the top goalscorer will come from one of the Big Four . How about yours?
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