Premier League / Nik Wardle / 15 October 2008 / Leave a comment

Hot-shot Portsmouth striker is the current favourite following his fast start to the season but which strikers could catch him?

Most football pundits appear to think that Michael Owen is worthy of at least a place on the bench for England. Of course the man that matters, Fabio Capello, currently disagrees and is selecting Jermain Defoe as his fox-in-the-box (only on the bench for the first 80 minutes!). Over the coming months Owen will need to let his goals do the talking if he wishes to overtake Defoe in the pecking order and, as a consequence, become the Premier League's top English goalscorer. Hopefully a few other English strikers can come to the fore and create more competition for places in the England squad.

Defoe is the current favourite in the market at [3.1]. He's already bagged five goals and has proved that given a run in any side he'll score. Defoe has a greedy streak and often gets his head down and shoots on sight - but you have to be in it to win it. His partnership with Peter Crouch at Portsmouth is bedding down nicely and the pair appear to be Capello's second choice pairing. Crouch is trading at [12.0] in this book - but seeing as Defoe takes the penalties at Pompey, I think he'll finish comfortably ahead of his team-mate.

Betfairians currently have Owen at [8.4]. His chances of winning this award aren't helped by the fact he's playing in a struggling Newcastle side. I've been critical of him over the past few years as I felt other than his goalscoring capabilities he offered little to his teams. However, he's now begun to play more of a part in build-up play. I think it's healthy for our national team that Capello doesn't pick players purely on reputation (though David Beckham is an obvious exception) so it's right that Owen should have to show good club form before being selected.

England's current front two, Emile Heskey and Wayne Rooney, are at [310.0] and [7.2] respectively. Heskey has been praised for his 'honest work' recently but at the sharp end of international and even Premier League football this isn't enough. The European benchmark is now Spain and their front two of Fernando Torres and David Villa are likely to take that chance at that moment, whereas you would expect Heskey to miss.

Rooney stands as the current second favourite. Much of his success in this book depends how many games he plays for Man United and in which position. If he were to play just behind Dimitar Berbatov in every game, he'd probably win this category - only Sir Alex Ferguson can tell us that answer.

Along with Crouch, there are three current logical alternatives to Heskey - Gabriel Agbonlahor ([10.5]), Dean Ashton ([32.0]) and Darren Bent ([16.0]).

Agbonlahor has been playing up front on his own for England U21s and has been making a good job of it. I feel he needs another big season behind him to really catch Capello's eye though. He's certainly got pace and power but may need to become more of a consistent goalscorer to make the full squad.

Ashton injury woes could curtail his international career, I'm afraid. Capello obviously sees something in him as he selected him to play in Trinidad and Tobago but unless he gets a good run of games behind him, he's unlikely to be selected again.

The fact Bent isn't guaranteed a place in the struggling Tottenhamside means he has no chance of any current England involvement.

Of the other contenders to be the best of the English scorers, Frank Lampard is at [13.0], Steven Gerrard at [28.0] and Theo Walcott at [48.0].

Shotaholic Lampard is a reasonable outside bet, especially as he takes Chelsea's penalties; Gerrard does too for Liverpool but is a bit more selective with his shot selection and I doubt many betters will be 'fooled' by Walcott's hat-trick against Croatia.

What leaps out at me about the betting for this book is that only one English striker, Rooney, plays for a top four club (I see Walcott is more of a winger at present). Seeing as Heskey and Crouch have both been discarded by Liverpool over recent seasons, none of the Big Four came in for Bent, Defoe or Owen when they were available and Ashton is so injury prone - only Agbonlahor is a potential candidate for such a move. Hopefully the Villa striker can push on and not only challenge for the honour of being the Premier League's top English goalscorer but also stake a claim to partner Rooney at international level.