Premier League Golden Boot Watch: Salah's To Lose

This article is part of our Soccer Picks series.

After a number of weeks jockeying for position with Tottenham's Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah of Liverpool is starting to separate himself as the leader for the Premier League Golden Boot, both from an odds and actual goals perspective.

After moving slightly ahead of Kane last week, +350 to +400, Salah was masterful off the bench against Crystal Palace on Saturday, scoring two goals in just 33 minutes en route to a 7-0 victory at Selhurst Park. Not only did it give him a two-goal lead over Jamie Vardy, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Son Heung-Min, he also became the clear front-runner to finish the season as the top scorer at +200, with Vardy the next highest at +450. In fact, Kane at +500 marks the first time since the first week of October that he wasn't among the top two favorites. He's still close, of course, as his nine goals leave him tied for fifth in the league behind everyone referenced earlier, and he is level on goals with Bruno Fernandes, who is sixth in terms of odds at +1800.

Bruno was one of six players (Salah was another), who scored twice this past weekend, which is why he improved from +2500. Interestingly, Marcus Rashford moved way up from +6600 to +3300 despite not scoring a goal, though he did have a brace the week prior. His move wasn't nearly as big as that of Roberto Firmino, another two-goal scorer this weekend, as he went from +15000 to +5000 after scoring his fourth and fifth goals of the season. He is now tied with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ollie Watkins in terms of Golden Boot odds, with the other two sitting on three and six goals, respectively.

We now have 17 players who have better odds to win the Golden Boot than Sergio Aguero and 18 with worse odds, which is pretty interesting considering he still hasn't actually scored a Premier League goal this season. He's battled a number of injuries and is still not fit enough to start, but with how well he can score when he is healthy, I guess we have to keep considering him. Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha has the most goals (seven) among the group behind Aguero, though five of those goals came in the first six games.

The Golden Boot is Salah's to lose, but there are players just behind him who are still viable bets, though those who got Calvert-Lewin at +6600 before the season started probably have no interest at +800 now.