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With less than 10 matches to go in the Premier League this season, there is still no clear indication of which team will lift the trophy come May. Claudio Ranieri’s resurgent Leicester City have a five-point lead at the top of the table but have a number of tricky fixtures lined up in the coming weeks.Eight points separate the top three with Tottenham Hotspur in second place and north London rivals Arsenal in third. Manchester City are fourth but have a game in hand while West Ham and Manchester United will now be looking to squeeze into the top four. Along the way, there have been a number of goalscorers who have scored the all-important winner a number of times this season. We look at the top five. Stats via WhoScored and TransferMarkt.
#5 Odion Ighalo - 4 winners in 29 games
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Before this season started, not many fans knew who Odion Ighalo was. But the Nigerian forward was already making a name for himself in the Championship with Watford as they finished second and gained promotion to the Premier League. Ighalo had scored 20 goals to help the Hornets make the step up to the EPL.
The 26-year-old carried his form into this season as well and could not stop scoring in the Premier League either, netting 13 goals by the end of December. No player had scored more goals in England in the calendar year 2015.
Ighalo’s best performances in the league this season came in wins against Newcastle, West Ham and Liverpool. On all three occasions, he scored a brace, narrowly beating Newcastle 2-1 when it looked like the Magpies would get a point.
Ighalo and Troy Deeney have formed a terrific partnership up front in a traditional 4-4-2 formation and Watford have benefited from the duo’s presence, even sitting as high as seventh in the league. But the goals have dried up for Ighalo, who has not scored since the start of February.
#4 Diego Costa - 4 winners in 24 games
Chelsea striker Diego Costa did not have the best of starts to the Premier League this season. After scoring 20 goals in the Premier League last season, most expected Costa to improve on his fitness and play more regularly for the Blues after he was rested for the major part of their Champions League campaign last season.
But after returning to Stamford Bridge unfit at the start of the season, Costa struggled to find form and by the middle of November he had scored only 3 goals as Chelsea’s season continued to go downhill. To put that in perspective, he had as many yellow cards as goals.
Following Jose Mourinho’s departure, however, Costa was back to his best once Guus Hiddink took over. In three months, he has managed to score 10 goals and provide 5 assists in all competitions. His most notable winner in the EPL was the goal he scored against Arsenal at the Emirates.
His run had seen Per Mertesacker dive into a needless tackle and get sent off and the goal five minutes later only hurt the Gunners more while it helped the Blues regain confidence and they are still undefeated in domestic games after Hiddink’s appointment,
In the Premier League, apart from just match-winners, he has also scored crucial goals to save at least a point. His late goal against Manchester United in a 1-1 draw was also seen as a huge confidence-booster as the Blues have finally managed to get into the top half of the table.
#3 Jamie Vardy - 5 winners in 29 matches
Nobody took the Premier League by storm like Jamie Vardy did at the start of the season. For a player who almost gave up on football as a teenager, Vardy could walk away with the Premier League Golden Boot at the end of the season.
The Leicester City striker was on a scoring spree that also saw him break Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record for most consecutive EPL games scored in, ironically against the Dutch striker’s former club Manchester United.
Vardy’s biggest asset apart from an eye for goal is his blistering pace with the ball and tireless running that leaves defenders gasping for breath by the end of the 90 minutes. The Foxes’ strategy is based on a counter-attacking style as they have the least possession stats in the league. And Vardy is their chief hitman on the break.
Apart from crucial goals against the likes of Chelsea and United, it is the winners against other mid-table sides that has seen the Foxes eke out a win and keep them in the title race. Although he has not scored as many goals of late, he has still been involved with a key assist in their late 1-0 win over Norwich City when the game seemed to be heading for a draw.
#2 Marko Arnautovic - 5 winners in 26 games
Although Marko Arnautovic has been deployed as an attacking midfielder, he is capable of playing as a left forward and has done wonders for Stoke City in that position this season. Last season, the Austrian forward had scored just one goal in the league. This season, he already has nine in spite of the Potters having scored the least number of goals among the top 10 teams (31).
Not only that, his goals, especially his match-winners, have come against the big sides in the league. His first big winner was a second-half goals against Chelsea in November in a 1-0 win.
He followed that up with a brace against Manchester City in a 2-0 win and goals against both Manchester United and a 91st minute winner against Everton in a thrilling match that ended 4-3 in favour of Mark Hughes’ side.
“He’s got a lot of talent,” Hughes said. “A lot of attributes and the fact that he hadn’t scored as many prior to this year for a player of his ability was one thing you could criticise him for.”
The Potters are currently in eighth spot but they do have a negative goal difference. And Arnautovic will be key to erasing that deficit before the season ends.
#1 Riyad Mahrez - 6 winners in 28 appearances
From relative obscurity to becoming the player who has been involved in the most number of goals in the Premier League this season, Riyad Mahrez’s rise has been nothing short of sensational. The Algerian winger’s signature cost Leicester City only a paltry £400,000. He has easily increased his market value a hundred fold in today’s inflated transfer market.
While Vardy took all the plaudits during the start of the season, Mahrez’s contributions were too important to brush aside. While Vardy has now slowed down, Mahrez has stepped up and delivered when it matters the most.
His biggest match winners have come against Everton (a brace in a 3-2 win at Goodison Park), Chelsea (the second goal in a 2-1 win at home) and most recently against Watford where he scored the solitary goal in a 1-0 win at Vicarage Road.
With 15 goals and 11 assists this season, there is no question that he is the favourite to take home the PFA Player of the Year award this season. Nobody else in the Premier League has touched double digits for both goals and assists so far.
As the Foxes look to win the Premier League title for the first time in their history, they will look to Mahrez to lead by example and extend their lead at the top of the table.
