The international break is a good opportunity to examine the scoring charts around the top leagues in Europe, which includes Daniel Sturridge of Liverpool off to an impressive season, Lionel Messi getting some competition from an unexpected direction, a very close race in the Bundesliga, Giuseppe Rossi enjoying his Fiorentina comeback while Falcao is having a wonderful debut season in Moncao.

The most surprising omission so far this season has to be Zlatan Ibrahimovic of PSG, who is playing much more as a facilitator this season, enabling Edinson Cavani and others to get on the scoreboard.

English Premier League

Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge is on top of the scoring charts with six goals so far this season, including one in their recent 3-1 win over Crystal Palace. One of the remarkable things about Sturridge this season is that he doesn’t score braces – he has scored in six of Liverpool’s seven league matches.

He’s followed by one player with 5 goals: Loic Remy of Newcastle, scoring twice in their recent win over Cardiff, and then come six players with 4 goals, including two from Arsenal (Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud) and two from Manchester City (Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero).

Spanish La Liga

A joint venture at the moment on top of the La Liga scoring charts: Both Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and Diego Costa (Atletico Madrid) have scored 8 goals so far this season. Messi has done it in six matches, not scoring only once (the 4-0 win over Rayo), while Costa has done it in 7 matches.

Cristiano Ronaldo follows the two closely with 7 goals so far, which might mean that with Messi still nursing an injury, the Portuguese scoring machine will soon be number one.

German Bundesliga

Scoring races are usually quite close in Germany, and this season proves to be no different. There are five different players with 6 goals so far: Vedad Ibisevic (Stuttgart), Sidney Sam (Leverkusen), Anthony Modeste (Hoffenheim), Nicolai Muller (Mainz) and Robert Lewandowski (Dortmund).

Italian Serie A

The current lead is shared between Giuseppe Rossi of Fiorentina, enjoying a very fine start to his La Viola career, and Alessio Cerci of Torino, both with 5 goals so far this season.

They’re followed by Marek Hamsik (Napoli) and Alessandro Florenzi (Roma), both scoring 4 goals so far.

French Ligue 1

For now, Radamel Falcao sits alone on top of the French scoring charts with 7 goals for Monaco, having a fantastic debut season through the first nine matches.

He’s followed by three players with 6 goals: Filip Djordjevic of Nantes, teammate Emmanuel Riviere from Monaco and Kévin Berigaud from Evian.