Defeat for Leicester but Vardy boosts top goalscorer hopes
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Danny Welbeck’s last-gasp goal was a cruel blow to Leicester, but Jamie Vardy’s penalty boosted his hopes of claiming top goalscorer glory this term.
The Englishman’s first-half penalty, fired past Petr Cech, took the 28-year-old to 19 Premier League goals this term, and he now holds a three-goal lead with 12 games to go.
Vardy’s odds were clipped from 5/2 to 7/4, as Sergio Aguero and Romelu Lukaku both failed to score this weekend.
Lukaku’s (9/2) inability to break down a West Brom defence on Saturday, means he now shares second place in the goalscoring race on 16 strikes with Tottenham’s Harry Kane, who bagged the opener against Manchester City.
Kane’s penalty saw his odds shorten from 4s to 3s, but neither man is second favourite in the betting.
That goes to 2015’s top marksman Sergio Aguero, though the little Argentine’s odds have slipped slightly 9/4 to 11/4 following his blank against Tottenham, remaining on 14 thus far.
An Englishman hasn’t won the award since Kevin Phillips for Sunderland in the 1999-2000 season, but Vardy can be expecting to remain at the top of the pile if Leicester can get back to winning ways.
The Foxes play a host of teams in the bottom half of the table in the coming weeks, and even more tellingly, Vardy has already scored this season against each of Leicester’s next seven opponents.
Should the former Fleetwood man score, say, three in that spell, that requires Kane or Lukaku to find at least six goals in their next seven games, and Aguero to net eight or more – over a goal a game.
Lukaku and Aguero’s transfer-deals total more than £66m, but if they don’t get a move on soon, they’ll be beaten by a man Leicester paid just £1m for.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
