The Golden Boot has been a lock over the last two years with Erling Haaland topping the Premier League scoring charts with ease.
But the Manchester City striker has a fight on his hands to retain the honour in 2024/25 as Mo Salah and Cole Palmer are gunning for his crown.
The Liverpool forward was leading the standings until this past weekend when the Merseyside Derby was postponed due to safety concerns as Storm Darragh battered the west coast.
That gave Haaland the opportunity to go level with the Egyptian when he broke his four-game dry spell against Crystal Palace on Saturday, finding the net for the 13th time in the Premier League this term.
Palmer, meanwhile, converted a pair of penalties against Spurs at the weekend to reach double digits and close the gap to the top two to just two goals.
We cannot ignore the chasing pack either. There are a few players in great form in front goal, but the question is: can they maintain it over the course of the rest of the season and keep the pace?
The Premier League top scorers so far in 2024/25 Golden Boot race
5. Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford) – 9
No Ivan Toney? No problem. Any lingering concerns about Brentford‘s ability to score goals following the sale of their star striker have been firmly put to bed in the opening four months of the season.
The Bees have scored 31 goals in 15 games – only Chelsea (35) have scored more – and nine of those have come from Bryan Mbeumo, who has thrived as the club’s talisman, particularly at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Eight of the Cameroon international’s nine top-flight goals for Brentford this season have come at home, while he’s already equalled his joint-best tally for a Premier League campaign (also nine in 2022-23 and 2023-24).
🧑🎨 Bryan Mbeumo, a master of his art pic.twitter.com/YBuWzOaL6v
— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) December 7, 2024
Tweets of the Week – Dead manager bounce, Merseyside Derby off, Arsenal corners
4. Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest) – 10
The renaissance of Chris Wood has been a joy to watch. As a longtime fan of the striker, I would say that, but who doesn’t love seeing a veteran centre-forward roll back the years and bang them in on a regular basis?
The New Zealander appeared to be finished at the top level just a couple of years ago. He managed just four league goals during a one-year stint at Newcastle united where he struggled to stay fit. A six-month loan at Nottingham Forest saw him find the net just once in seven appearances.
But ever since the Tricky Trees signed him permanently in 2023, Wood has been exceptional. He scored 14 goals that season and already has 10 this term, overtaking Bryan Roy as the club’s top scorer in the Premier League.
The moment Woody became our all-time leading #PL goalscorer. 😍 pic.twitter.com/oUTzu1Zbwb
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) December 7, 2024
Remarkably, since Nuno Espirito Santo’s first league game in charge of Forest, only Erling Haaland (21) has scored more non-penalty goals in the competition than Wood (19 – level with Cole Palmer).
Read – Five things we learned from the Premier League weekend
3. Cole Palmer (Chelsea) – 11
Palmer doesn’t consistently notch goals like Haaland or Salah, but he has a canny ability to rack them up in single matches. Six of his 11 goals this season came against Brighton and Spurs alone.
With his brace at the weekend, the England international reached 50 goal involvements (33 goals, 17 assists) in 48 Premier League games for Chelsea; only Haaland for Man City (39), Andy Cole for Newcastle (43), and Salah for Liverpool (46) have ever reached that total in fewer appearances for a club in the competition.
One of the key weapons in his arsenal is, of course, penalties. He’s converted all 12 of his penalties in the Premier League, the most any player has taken in the competition without ever missing, surpassing Yaya Toure (11).
Panenka away to Spurs. It doesn’t get better than this. 😮💨#CFC | #TOTCHE pic.twitter.com/S3zdTgRNCD
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 8, 2024
Premier League Awards – Comebacks galore and Cole Palmer’s Panenka
=1. Erling Haaland (Man City) – 13
The Golden Boot race felt like anything but after the first five weeks of the 2024/25 campaign as Haaland bagged ten goals in that time. In the ten games since he has scored just three goals, giving his rivals the chance to catch up.
Manchester City’s form has taken a massive dip in that period, losing four and dropping to fourth in the Premier League table.
Read – Premier League team of the weekend for GW15
=1. Mo Salah (Liverpool) – 13
Across the history of the Premier League there have been very few players who can claim to have been as consistent over the course of their time in England as Mo Salah. The 32-year-old has notched 168 goals in the first tier since joining Liverpool in 2017 and 226 in all competitions. Not bad for a winger.
The former Chelsea man is currently on one of the best runs of his career, having scored in seven consecutive league games. That’s only the third time a Liverpool player has done that in the competition; one was Daniel Sturridge in 2014, and the other was… Salah in 2021.
A timely reminder for Liverpool of the player’s enduring class and quality as he enters the final few months of his contract.
Which Premier League player will win the Golden Boot award in 2024/25? Let us know in the comments below!
Read – Liverpool submit contract offer to Mo Salah
See Also – The Football Faithful’s Advent Calendar: December 9th
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