Battle for EPL Golden Boot: 2 reasons why Aubameyang will be goals king
By Toju Sote
With just four games of 360 minutes left of the Premier League season and the title already wrapped up by Liverpool, the individual honours are up for grabs to reward the season’s exceptional players.
Undoubtedly, the pick of the pack is who wears the crown of goals king. Three players are neck and neck for the gong but Arsenal’s Pierre Aubameyang should pick the award, ahead of Liverpool’s Mohammed Salah and Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy, for these two reasons:
1. AUBA’S A PROVEN GOALSCORER: If Salah and Vardy are goalscorers, Aubameyang puts the word ‘perpetual’ before it. Aubameyang is the only one among them to have reached the 20-goal mark in any top flight league four times. Mo Salah has done it twice though he may yet do it this season and Vardy has done it thrice. Aubameyang has also reached the 30 goal mark in all competitions in the top flight four times with Salah doing it once while Vardy has never crossed that landmark.
Salah did have that glorious season where he scored 32 goals in the Premier League and 44 goals in all competitions, yet during the 2016/ 2017 season Aubameyang plundered in 31 goals in the Bundesliga and 40 in all competitions to wrestle the Golden Boot from Lewandowski in the process.
2. ARSENAL’S POSITION ON THE EPL TABLE
With Liverpool having already wrapped up the League, the Reds may put their foot off the gas and thus deprive Salah the service needed to score as evidenced in the match against Man City. Salah’s motivation may also be low since the bigger prize is already in the bag.
Leicester have been pushed to fourth and European football is more or less guaranteed for the Foxes so Vardy is in a more comfortable position compared to Aubameyang who must fire Arsenal further up the league table from their current less than flattering position in eighth spot in the table.
The race for the top four is on. The race for the Europa league spots is on. So definitely Aubameyang will have to be at his sharpest in the last couple of games.
