Chelsea of England striker, Tammy Abraham is keeping up his battle to emerge winner of this season’s highest goals scorers’ award in the England Premier League, as he stays second on the log heading into Boxing Day, megasportsarena.com reports.
Abraham’s haul of 11 goals puts him only behind Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy, who has a mammoth 17 already, but the Nigerian-born England international would fancy his chances of netting more for Frank Lampard’s Blues, as they continue waxing on new rhythm in the team.
The former Bristol City, Swansea City and Aston Villa hitman will, however, have to keep his feet fully on the throttle, as the race for this season’s EPL golden boot is turning out to be very much as intriguing as it was in last term’s three-way tie.
Last time out, Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as well as the Liverpool duo of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane could not be split, after they all hit home 22 goals, which meant they had to be named joint-winners.
It was Salah’s second successive golden boot, with Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane winning the award in the two seasons before, while Abraham will now aim for his own time under the spotlight, as he aims to continue making waves in only his first full season with Chelsea.
Abraham, though, will also have to watch out for Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, who will hope to win his second golden boot after beating Kane in 2015, but Aubameyang, Danny Ings and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford are hogging positions three, four and five, which means they are also all keen contenders in taking home the gong at the end of this season.
Heading into the Boxing Day fixtures, the standings for this year’s goleador award read thus: Jamie Vardy – 17, Tammy Abraham – 11, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 11, Danny Ings – 11, Marcus Rashford – 10, Sergio Aguero – 9, Sadio Mane – 9, Harry Kane – 9, Raheem Sterling – 9, Teemu Pukki – 9 and Mohamed Salah – 9.
As the ratings stand, heading into the Boxing Day spree across Queensland, Vardy is the EPL’s highest scorer with 17 goals in 18 fixtures, having scored in all but one of his last nine league games, only three short of 100 overall and needing just seven more to match the tally he got during Leicester’s title-winning season four years ago.
Vardy, who showed his clinical scoring touch in a 3-1 loss to Man City last weekend, remains as lethal as ever in front of goal as Leicester try and slow Liverpool down on Thursday, ahead of which 32-year-old striker has been passing scoring tips during training sessions.
The England international spent lots of time schooling his team-mates on when to shoot first-time, when to take a touch, when to hit the ball with power and when to use precision, much to the delight of Leicester’s boss, Brendan Rodgers, who is gloating over the star’s overall acumen.
Rodgers disclosed: “He’s so honest that he’d press the entire back four if he could. He plays an aggressive game that suits him with tactical ideas that allow him to conserve his energy.
“How we play, being aggressive and playing quickly obviously suits him. But his finishing ability, how clinical he is, is absolutely phenomenal. That’s a big testament to his concentration. When the opportunities come he’s always ready.”
