The Leicester City striker is closing in on a milestone he set himself, but how far away is the Foxes star and what does he have to do to break it?
Leicester City and Jamie Vardy are taking the Premier League by storm once again, with Brendan Rodgers’ side pushing Liverpool at the top of the table and the former England striker leading the Golden Boot rankings.
With 16 goals in 16 league appearances, the 32-year-old Vardy is out in front of Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham, Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford in the top scorer stakes.
He is already within two goals of his tally for the entirety of last season, and within eight of the 24 he scored during the Foxes’ title-winning campaign of 2015-16.
Following a brace in Leicester’s 4-1 defeat of Aston Villa, Vardy is also closing in on an all-time Premier League goalscoring record he set himself in that same season.
He scored in 11 consecutive Premier League games between August and November 2015, breaking the previous record of 10 set by Ruud van Nistelrooy across two seasons in 2003.
Now, his current tally stands at eight games in a row, with 11 goals scored in that time. That is remarkable in itself, as Van Nistelrooy is the only other player to have reached the eight-game mark more than once.
Leicester have won each of the eight games in which Vardy has scored during this run, but remain eight points off the top of the Premier League.
The streak began with the equaliser in a 2-1 win against Burnley, followed by a hat-trick in the 9-0 evisceration of Southampton.
Singular strikes against Crystal Palace, Arsenal, Brighton, Everton and Watford followed, before he bagged twice against Villa.
Vardy needs to score in Leicester’s next three games to equal his record, and the next four to break it.
A home fixture against Norwich City first up presents a promising next step. The Canaries are mired in a relegation fight, and only Southampton – with that nine-goal defeat to their name – have a worse defensive record after 16 games.
A Carabao Cup quarter-final with Everton provides a brief interlude before things get trickier.
On December 21, Leicester travel to Premier League champions Manchester City for a crucial game in the current top-four shoot-out.
Pep Guardiola’s side will be stinging after their defeat at home to Manchester United and, though they have looked defensively wobbly, only four sides have conceded fewer than them after 16 games.
On Boxing Day, the Foxes host leaders Liverpool. If Vardy scores against Norwich and City, this would be the record-equalling game – against the last side he failed to score past.
Vardy drew a blank in the 2-1 defeat at Anfield in October, with James Milner’s stoppage-time penalty proving the winner.
Jurgen Klopp’s side will have played in the Club World Cup by then, so Leicester may well be able to capitalise on some fatigue on their part.
If the run is still alive after that, the record-breaking 12th game would be away to West Ham on December 28, Leicester’s final game of 2019.
Ahead of the Norwich game, Vardy is already within six goals of the 22 scored by Aubameyang, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane to share last season’s Premier League Golden Boot.
Be the first to comment