Premier League Top Goalscorer: Each-Way Tip

For the purposes of this tip we should probably ignore Robin van Persie. The Arsenal hotshot has 22 league goals, five more than his nearest rival, and he should finish top of the pile come May. However, at best odds of 4/11 (Coral) the Dutchman is virtually unbackable when you consider that an injury can always scupper even the biggest ‘certainty.’ But what interests me is the each-way market.

Several of the bookies are still offering 1/3rd odds on whoever finishes second in the Premier League goalscoring charts. At the moment that position is occupied by Wayne Rooney (17 goals) after he scored four times in his last two appearances. But at 5/1 (Bet365) there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of value there. The same could be said of Sergio Aguero (15 goals) at a best price 10/1 (BetVictor). He isn’t even assured of a regular starting spot with Dzeko, Balotelli and potentially even Tevez all in the frame at Manchester City

Only one other player has more than 13 goals to his name, and that man, Demba Ba, is the one that looks most interesting because of the terms of the each-way betting. At 14/1 with Betfred, the Newcastle striker could pay us off at nearly 5/1 (4.66/1) if he finishes second in the list behind Van Persie.

Ba has 16 goals already, just one behind Rooney, but his return since mid-September is far superior to that of the England striker. Amazingly, the Manchester United star had nine league goals before Ba had even got off the mark for his new club. With that in mind, the darling of the Toon Army has been considerably more prolific in the last five months.

It took a few weeks for Ba to get established in the starting line-up under Alan Pardew but now he is pretty much the first name on the team sheet every week. The betting public seems predisposed to favour the big name strikers from the glamorous Manchester clubs but really there is no sound reason why Ba can’t surpass them both. 

An upcoming home game against Wolves seemingly won’t hurt his chances given that they just conceded five to WBA at Molineux.