Championship update: Grabban heads 5 picks for top scorer
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The race to be crowned top scorer in the Championship is shaping up to be a contest between Bournemouth strikers past and present with Lewis Grabban and Callum Wilson starting with a bang.
After four games both strikers have a decent return but the early signs are they will face stiff competition from rivals at Nottingham Forest, Watford and Cardiff.
Here James Curtis runs the rule over five picks for top scorer in the second tier this season.
Grabban’s goals fired Bournemouth to their highest league finish in over 25 years last season and he was subsequently snapped up by the Canaries for £3m.
Some questioned how the 26-year-old would cope with the step up in expectation but those doubters have been proved emphatically wrong already with a return of five goals from his first five games.
Grabban failed to net in his debut away to Wolves but has scored in every game since and bagged his first Canaries brace in the 3-1 win over Blackburn.
The former Crystal Palace youth scored 22 goals in the Championship last season and after an electric start and with superior players around him looks on course to smash that tally this year.
Assombalonga smashed 33 goals in 58 appearances for Peterborough last year earning him a move to promotion hopefuls Nottingham Forest.
The 21-year-old has taken little time to settle at the City Ground and has bagged four goals from his five league games so far.
Having endured a nine-game barren spell last term he represents something of a risk but is certainly worth considering at the price.
Deeney has resisted the lure of the Premier League to remain at Vicarage Road and will hope to lead the Hornets to a successful promotion push.
The 26-year-old netted 24 times in the league last year – just four behind top scorer Ross McCormack – and has started the new season where he left off with three strikes from five games.
Deeney smashed eight goals in the last 10 games of last year and will surely be knocking on the door if a repeat spell emerges this term.
Despite his tally of 22 goals from 41 Coventry games last year some eyebrows were raised when Bournemouth spent their Lewis Grabban money to lure Wilson to Dean Court.
The 22-year-old had underwhelmed before that solid campaign and many questioned his ability to operate in the Championship.
A two-goal debut against Huddersfield cast those fears aside, however, and the Cherries ace has bagged two more from four games since as well as a League Cup strike.
A great value each-way shout.
Speaking of each-way shouts, Jones is revelling in the drop down to the Championship, going from a 10-game barren spell in the Premier League to a haul of four from five in the second tier.
The Trinidad and Tobago international may end up falling into the group of players too good for the Championship but not able to cut it at the top table but that won’t bother punters taking a punt at 25/1!
He hit 16 in 38 at this level for Southampton in 2006-07 but his good start and wealth of experience should see a much larger return this time round.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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