Gunner proving to be a deadly shot in Premier League
It appears Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah have some company as they vie for the second straight season to be top scorer in the English Premier League.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the Bundesliga’s leading marksman in his last full season in German soccer — with 31 goals for Borussia Dortmund in the 2016-17 campaign — and he is proving just as prolific in England after reaching 14 this season by scoring Arsenal’s fourth in a 4-1 win over Fulham yesterday.
The Gabon striker moved to Arsenal in January last year as Arsene Wenger’s final signing and has been an unqualified success with 23 league goals in barely 11 months.
He might need to keep up that rate of scoring to stay in contention for the Golden Boot.
Kane, the league’s leading scorer in 2015-16 and 2016-17, is tied with Aubameyang atop the charts after scoring the goal that set Tottenham on their way to a 3-0 win at Cardiff. All three goals were scored in the opening 26 minutes.
That result moved Tottenham back into second place, one point above Manchester City and six behind Liverpool. City host Liverpool today in the final match of the 21st round, completing England’s busy festive program.
Liverpool’s Salah, who scored a league-best 32 goals last season, is one behind Kane and Aubameyang with 13.
Arsenal stayed in fifth place after beating Fulham but closed to within two points of Chelsea in the race for the four Champions League qualification positions.
There’s something about playing over Christmas that brings the best out of Kane.
With his goal against Cardiff, he has scored in all four games over this festive period — having netted backto-back hat tricks this time last year. He also scored three times in the two games after Christmas in 2016.
There was a touch of fortune about his third-minute goal at Cardiff City Stadium, with defender Sean Morrison’s clearance hitting Kane in the midriff just inside the six-yard box and the ball dribbling over the goal line.
Christian Eriksen and Son Heungmin added further goals for Spurs and there was no sign of the fatigue that appeared to mark their display in the 3-1 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.
With another big win over Fulham, Arsenal bounced back from their mauling at Anfield just three days earlier.
This was as convincing and onesided as Arsenal’s 5-1 loss to Liverpool, which underlined the gulf between Unai Emery’s new-look team and the division’s genuine title contenders.
Granit Xhaka gave Arsenal a firsthalf lead that was added to by Alexandre Lacazette’s close-range finish 11 minutes after the break. Goals by Aaron Ramsey and Aubameyang wrapped up the win.