Drogba favourite to retain Premier League top scorer title
Published:Didier Drogba’s hat-trick on the final day of last season against Wigan Athletic not only ensured Chelsea would win the title in emphatic style, but that the Ivorian would be named the top flight’s hottest shot.
The market for Premier League top scorer is now open and Drogba has been installed as the 9/2 favourite to win the award he also claimed at the end of the 2006/07 season.
That the 32-year-old striker’s 29 goals edged Wayne Rooney (26) into second was notable for the fact it extended the wait for an English winner to ten years.
Not since Kevin Phillips took the top flight by storm to score 30 goals in the 1999/2000 season has an Englishman picked up the award.
Rooney’s phenomenal improvement in goal-scoring sent the Manchester United man close last year and he is the 5/1 second-favourite to go one better this time.
Last season was, in fact, a good year for English marksmen with five of the top ten coming from home shores.
Of the other four, Darren Bent (24 goals last season) is 14/1 to win the 2010/11 Golden Boot, Frank Lampard (22 goals) is 25/1, Jermain Defoe (18 goals) is 12/1 and Gabriel Agbonlahor (13 goals) is 40/1.
Unusually last time out, five men notched 20 or more goals (the other not mentioned so far was Carlos Tevez, who got 23 and is an 11/1 shot to top the charts), compared to the year before where no one reached the mark.
That season Nicolas Anelka (20/1) won the gong with 19 league goals, finishing his season with Chelsea – a club that has provided the winner four times in the last decade.
Indeed in the last ten years only Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal players have been the Premier League’s best scorer. If Robin Van Persie stays fit, he could be worth a wager to win at 9/1.
Five times in the last ten seasons has the top scorer also picked up a league winners medal (01/02, 02/03, 03/04, 07/08 and 09/10) so a bet on potential title-winner Javier Hernandez, at 40/1, could be a worthwhile risk.
If Fernando Torres stays at Anfield, expect Roy Hodgson to get the best out of him. He’s scored 56 league goals in three season at an average of just under 19 per campaign and would be an excellent bet at 7/1. See the full Top Premier League Goalscorer market.
