CREDIT: THEBUSBYWAY.COM
Robin Van Persie won last season’s Golden Boot with 26 goals.

With the English Premier League title being seemingly monopolized in recent seasons by Manchester United, Chelsea and, more recently, Manchester City; it has been noticed that in recent seasons (the breathless excitement of the 2001/12 final day notwithstanding) the final stretch going into the title has become rather boring, with the title often decided with several games to spare. With the objective of the league often not providing the most excitement, fans' heads are often turned toward other contests and awards available within the league, likely in the direction of the Golden Boot. The competition for this trophy, awarded to the top scorer in the division, often comes down to two of three players going into the final weeks of the season, resulting in the country's best strikers raising their game even higher in an effort to secure it for themselves.

What keeps the Golden Boot race exciting is that no player has really run away with it since Cristiano Ronaldo's 31-goal haul during the 2007/08 season, the year he cemented his reputation as one of the world's best players, and by the end of each season, the gap between the first- and second-place scorers have often been a mere two or three goals, an amount that the strikers at the top of the scoring charts are well capable of producing in a single game.

Come the end of the recently started 2013/14 Premier League season, fans and media alike expect that the top scorer title will go to one of the ‘usual suspects,' the world-class strikers in the league such as Luis Suarez of Liverpool and Robin Van Persie of Manchester United, both big names that are playing in teams that are in a period of transition, with United adjusting to their first managerial shift in 27 years, and Liverpool still attempting to rebuild from their recent five-year slump. These two players, along with Gareth Bale, who has left the league for Spain, maintained a tight race at the top of the scoring charts last year, with Van Persie topping the league at 26 goals (aided in part by Suarez being suspended for the final five games for biting an opponent), with their position as top scorer switching around every week.

Somewhat surprisingly, however, it was not these players who were setting the early pace at the top of the scoring charts with the first six games of the season played, with only Van Persie showing up in the top 10, and in a six-way tie at the bottom. Suarez's biting incident caused him to miss the opening five games of the season, and he made amends on his return with a quick brace, but the early pacesetters this season are some of the less glorious names that are playing in the Premier League.

With players such as Suarez's strike partner Daniel Sturridge, alongside Aston Villa's Christian Benteke and Arsenal's Oliver Giroud all beginning the season in fantastic goal-scoring form, they have firmly entered their names into consideration as serious contenders for the prize when it is awarded in May. If these players can stay free of injury and maintain the remarkable level of consistency that they have begun the season with, they will surely be joining their more illustrious competitors at the top of the charts.