Players & Managers

After a poor World Cup showing by Wayne, he will be desperate to improve on that and impress new coach Louis Van Gaal. Robin Van Persie is expected to take the captaincy from departed captain Nemanja Vidic but Rooney and Van Persie have the ability to cause havoc for any defence.

12/1 isn’t a bad price, but with other players looking more dangerous last season and at the World Cup, I personally don’t think Wayne will manage more than 20 goals, meaning he will not be top scorer in the Premier League this season.

The Big Belgian has spent 2 seasons out on loan at Everton and West Brom over the previous 2 seasons. 17 league goals for West Brom followed by 15 at Everton, at the tender age of 21 that is superb stats. Chelsea may not start him and opt to loan him out again as they have recently signed Diego Costa.

It is still up in the air as to whether Lukaku may move permanetely for a regular first team place with teams such as Everton, Tottenham and Atletico Madrid all interested in the wonderkid. Drogba has also recently signed for Chelsea that may limit Lukaku to very few games.

Often heavily criticised by Arsenal fans as well as fans of other Premier League teams, Giroud’s stats are actually not that bad. 16 league goals in his 2^nd season is a respectable return. With Alexis Sanchez joining the Gunners maybe that will give Giroud more reason to work harder in order to ensure his place at the Emirates.

I don’t think Giroud has it in him to be top scorer, simply because he misses too many easy chances. He can go missing in big games and missed golden opportunities against Chelsea, City and Liverpool to my memory. It is still unknown as to whether he will play on his own or as a 2 with Sanchez.

On his day, Bony can be unplayable. He is strong, pacey and has great ability to finish with his feet or his head. Bony is in the Drogba mould of player in the Premier League and is an absolute powerhouse from time to time. 16 league goals in his debut season means he is being linked with Liverpool amongst other teams.

Loic Remy’s deal to Liverpool has been called off due to him failing a medical and at 22/1 I think if Bony moved to a team like Liverpool he could easily be top scorer. At Swansea he lacks quality service all the time which he is likely to get at Liverpool.

There was hype surrounding the Bosnian pre World Cup as he scored 12 in qualifying, which made him top scorer across all of Europe in the build-up to the World Cup. He only found the net once and Bosnia were knocked out at the group stage. 46 Premier League goals in 108 games is a strong ratio considering he wouldn’t have started all of those games.

He will want to put the World Cup behind him and his link up with Sergio Aguero was prominent last season particularly at the back end of the season when City were running riot. Negredo still may move on from the Etihad and Dzeko will be hoping no one is brought in to replace him.

Arsene Wenger’s second marquee signing in two seasons. Robin Van Persie, Theirry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp were all moved from winger positions to striker by Arsene Wenger with devastating effect. Sanchez had a superb World cup in a free roaming role for Chile and it is still untold as to whether Sanchez will operate as a winger, a false 9 or an out and out striker.

It can take players time to adjust to the Premier League meaning it will be difficult for Sanchez to claim the top scorer prize in his first year. There is also still talk that Arsenal may sign a natural positioned striker in the coming weeks.

The final new signing on the list, Costa is another player who had a World Cup to forget, not managing a single goal for Spain. A clash of styles and Costa’s strengths weren’t really played to under Del Bosque as Spain’s tiki taka football doesn’t really suit Costa who is best operated as a target man. Jose will know this and I expect him to take the Premier League by storm.

Only Ronaldo and Messi scored more goals than Costa last season in Spain and with the likes of Oscar, WIllian and Eden Hazard behind him, he couldn’t ask for better service. Similar to Sanchez, Costa may need time to adapt but with little competition I would expect him to play a lot of league games for Chelsea.

With Luis Suarez departing for Barcelona, Liverpool fans will be hoping for Sturridge to take charge and try to emulate what the Uruguayan did. Suarez scored 31 league goals in 33 games and would be top of this list had he stayed at Anfield. Sturridge had a noteworthy debut season at Liverpool scoring 21 Premier League goals in 29 games.

With the arrival of Ricky Lambert and potentially Wilfred Bony, Sturridge could form quality partnerships with either of those players. He would play further up the pitch than both of those players and would be expected to be the goal scorer and poacher.

The bookies favourite. Sergio had an indifferent World cup not managing to hit the net all tournament. He has been in formidable form for City since joining in 2011. 52 goals in 87 games shows signs of World class and he scored 23 of those in his debut season which very few players do when coming from a foreign league.

He is prone to an injury and only played 23 times last season. If he stays fully fit I would expect him to reach 25/30 goals and be right in the mix for top scorer. City and Chelsea seem favourites for the league and with the firepower behind him, Aguero looks a real threat.

Aguero just shaded him in terms of odds but the Dutchman will be fancied by many for the coveted top scorer title this season. Having just returned from Brazil where he captained the Dutch side under Louis Van Gaal, he looked like a man possessed from the start netting 2 against Spain and linking up brilliantly with Arjen Robben.

26 league goals in his debut season at United and 30 the season before at Arsenal, he was plagued by injury and not first choice under David Moyes. Van Gaal will make him captain and the main man at United and it will be expected that we will see the best of Robin Van Persie this season.