The 2021/22 Premier League season has entered the second half of the campaign as the 20 teams continue to fight to achieve their targets.
As well as team ambitions, there are personal honours up for grabs, including the Golden Boot. Some bookmakers allow you to place bets on who will be the PL top scorer, like Bovada sports betting for example. So, read our tips below to know who you should back as favourite.
Who will be crowned the Premier League top scorer at the end of the season? Here is a look at the leading contenders.
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
Salah has set a relentless pace this season with, at the time of writing, 16 goals in 20 Premier League games. If the 29-year-old's absence during the Africa Cup of Nations – where he led Egypt to the final – gave his Golden Boot rivals the opportunity to close the gap, they haven't really taken it: Salah still holds a six-goal lead over his nearest challenger.Considering his remarkable form this season, it is going to take an uncharacteristic dip in form combined with another striker hitting a red-hot streak to stop Salah from claiming his third Golden Boot.
Diogo Jota (Liverpool)
The Portuguese forward has achieved what was deemed nigh-on impossible and managed to dislodge one of Liverpool's famed front-three to make himself a regular starter.While Roberto Firmino watches on from the bench, Jota has led the Liverpool line in fine style, contributing 10 goals in 24 Premier League matches and helping fill the void while Salah and Sadio Mane – who scored the winning penalty in the AFCON final – were on international duty.
As Salah returns to the Liverpool lineup, though, it would seem a tough task for Jota to outscore his teammate until the end of the season, enough to overtake him in the Golden Boot race.
Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)
All is not well at Leicester City this season. The Foxes saw their FA Cup defence ended in embarrassing fashion, thrashed away at local rivals – and second-tier side – Nottingham Forest, while in the Premier League they sit in mid-table.Leicester's inconsistency has been reflected in the goals output of their lead striker. Vardy may sit third in the Golden Boot race – with nine in 17 games – but his lack of regular goals in recent weeks should be a concern: the former England international has scored twice in his last eight league games, with both goals coming against Watford.
Vardy has long proved his pedigree as a prolific Premier League goalscorer – his 23 in the 2019/20 season were enough to win Golden Boot – but there appear to be some major flaws at Leicester this season and it will take a miracle for him to catch Salah.
Harry Kane (Tottenham)
It has been a below-par Premier League season so far for the Tottenham striker with just five goals in 21 appearances, but don't rule the England captain out of contention just yet.The 28-year-old has scored 21 goals for club and country this season, so his goalscoring struggles have only been limited to the league, and since the arrival of Antonio Conte as manager, Kane has enjoyed an increase in his productivity.
Kane has demonstrated throughout his career that he is capable of going on an unstoppable run of form and if he has one of those months where he scores seven or eight goals in three or four games, he can push himself right back into the mix.
Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea)
It has been a strange return to Chelsea for the Belgian striker, who started like a freight train with three goals in his first three Premier League games. But a lean spell coupled with a two-month injury layoff and the disruptive interview where he aired his grievances about Blues manager Thomas Tuchel have seen Lukaku score only five goals in 21 appearances.The 28-year-old is a long shot to turn around his own goalscoring return to the point of winning the Golden Boot, but like Kane, he is more than capable of going on a rampaging run where he scores 10 goals in one month.
Perhaps if Lukaku can get firing again at the FIFA Club World Cup – where Chelsea generally face weaker opposition – it could ignite the rest of his Premier League campaign.
Anyone Else?
Much like the Premier League title race itself, the Golden Boot looks to be wrapped up already. Whereas Manchester City look uncatchable for the title, so too Salah looks set to be named this season's top scorer.A look at the leading scorers' charts and it's difficult to see where else the Egyptian's main challengers are going to come from for the rest of the season. There are seven players locked on eight goals, half the tally of Salah – West Ham's Michail Antonio, Watford forward Emmanuel Dennis, Leeds winger Raphinha, Arsenal midfielder Emile Smith Rowe, Liverpool's Sadio Mane, Tottenham forward Son Heung-min, and Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Given the enduring problems at United, Ronaldo appears unlikely to close down Salah, while it would be a huge challenge for a player from a team not competing at the top of the table – and therefore playing for a side not regularly scoring lots of goals – to win the Golden Boot.
Liverpool's title challenge may be hanging by a thread and Salah's Africa Cup of Nations campaign may have ended in final heartbreak, but he should at least be able to console himself with a third Golden Boot come the end of the season.
