
Premier League Top Goalscorer Without Erling Haaland Tips: Two Selections To Shine

With Manchester City the undisputed best team in club football right now (yes yes, we know you beat them in the Community Shield Arsenal fans) and the Citizens possessing the world’s best number nine, it is no surprise to see defending Golden Boot winner Erling Haaland priced prohibitively short to be Premier League top goalscorer again in 2023/24.
Betting Sites have come up with a creative solution to this potentially stale market and have priced up the contenders without the Norwegian goal machine, and here we take a look at some poachers that could get themselves into the mix come May 2024.
There is only one place to start in this market and that is with Harry Kane, who raced away to win this market last season with a stunning 30 goals in a flailing Spurs side, a full ten goals clear of Ivan Toney in third.
The problem with simply lumping on Kane this time around and counting your money is that he may well not see out the season in North London, with Bayern Munich still pushing hard to acquire the England captain.
We expect him to stay at Tottenham for one more season, but for the purpose of this betting preview we hope he heads to Deutschland!
Mo Salah is another obvious candidate and is second favourite, but with AFCON on the horizon in winter he may fall behind. This market looks ripe for a big-priced winner…
Don’t be afraid to back an outsider in the top goalscorer market.
In the previous 21 seasons a player at 50/1 or bigger has placed in the Premier League Golden Boot market 17 times and in that same sample size a player at 100/1 or bigger has been in the frame in 12 seasons.
With this without Haaland market offering even more value, it could pay to go digging at the bottom of the odds grids for a player being overlooked by the bookies.
Ollie Watkins - 18/1 Each Way - Paddy Power / Betfair
It was Ivan Toney that kept the 50/1 shots in the money last season in the outright Golden Boot market, another talismanic striker from outside the traditional ‘big six’ to hit the frame and he joined a list of players like Danny Ings at Southampton and of course Kevin Phillips at Sunderland to have a goalfest of a year.
Toney is out of the picture now for the foreseeable future but a player he was vying for an England Jersey with OLLIE WATKINS looks a smashing play here.
Watkins feels like he has been around forever but is still only 27 and Unai Emery’s transformation of the Villains coincided with a turn in fortune for Watkins, who finally started to match his XG that he had been underperforming for Steven Gerrard.
Watkins finished the season strongly with 11 goals in 19 and if he were to hit the same form or better he would surely be right up there. The drawback here is Villa are in the European Conference League and if they advance deep into the competition as is expected with European mastermind Emery in charge, Watkins could be a rotation risk at the business end of the year.
Nevertheless, with this market meaning you effectively need your selection to finish in the top five goalscorers (it will take a miracle or a season ending injury for Haaland to not finish in the top four places) I think there is enough upside in Watkins and Villa to back the former Brentford bagsman.
Emery has bought well over the summer and there will be plenty of creativity in behind Watkins, and his injury record is pretty good too over the last few years so we can be hopeful he will play the vast majority of minutes for the men from Villa Park.
Nicolas Jackson - 33/1 Each Way - Paddy Power / Betfair
It takes a special player to hit the ground running in the Premier League, with particularly the last few seasons seeing the British top division take strides to become both the highest quality and most intense league in the world.
This is never more true than for strikers entering the league but on very early evidence, Chelsea seem to have got themselves a cracker in NICOLAS JACKSON.
Signed from Villareal to relatively little fanfare, the 22-year-old Gambian has looked an absolute livewire in pre-season for the Blues. This looks like a Mauricio Pochettino signing down to a tee as the former Spurs boss loves to work with and mould young players into hard working pressing machines. His exploits across London particularly with Harry Kane show he knows how to get the best from his star forward.
Chelsea have plenty of options up top (they even amazingly still have Romelu Lukaku on the books!) but Jackson looks set to start the season leading the line at Stamford Bridge.
The other main rival to be the Blues centre forward was Christian Nkunku but sadly the ex-Bundesliga man picked up a pretty serious injury in pre-season and looks set to miss a fair few months of action. Jackson will miss his creativity in behind as the two looked to have already gelled judging by their cameos in friendlies together, but Carney Chukwuemeka looks set to deputise in the hole behind Jackson and he is a youngster I rate very highly.
I am expecting a big season for Chelsea and with Jackson's new side out of Europe following last season's disastrous campaign, rotation shouldn't be a threat to their new striker should he hit the ground running. His record at Villareal, particularly at the end of last season when he was scoring a goal a game, reads very well indeed and 33/1 could look an insulting price come Christmas if, as expected, Chelsea and Jackson start fast.