A title that usually belongs to Javier Hernandez who isn’t getting too many chances this season has been taken over by Romelu Lukaku, who through his short time in the Premier League has taken over the best scorer per minute. Not just for this season with Everton, but in Premier League history for players with at least 20 goals.
He scored his 8th league goal of the season for Everton in their 4-0 win over Stoke, showing just how much Chelsea might have needed him if Jose Mourinho wouldn’t have loaned him out. There are quite a few theories about why that happened, with Mourinho calling out Lukaku over the media with his own unique brand of class and viciousness coming out all at once, claiming there’s more to the story than it seems.
Whatever it is, the last couple of seasons have proved that Lukaku is probably good enough to start for any team in the league. He simply scores goals. No build up action, no passing brilliance or a dribbling whiz. Simply a sense for goals, not to mention being the most physically imposing striker in the league.
In terms of goals per minute this season, he’s trailing Luis Suarez, Kun Aguero and Loic Remy, averaging a goal every 106 minutes. In his career, with 25 goals in 54 matches for Chelsea, West Brom and his current club, he’s averaging a goal every 117 minutes, better than anyone in the history of the Premier League who has scored at least 20 goals.
Everton don’t seem to be good enough to be a factor in the title race which is still quite open for more than the two-three teams we usually see involved, but there’s no reason that their upgraded version, with a better manager and players than last season, isn’t going to finish in the top 6, or at least look like they’re heading that way early on. With Lukaku, the best striker this team has had for a very long time, it sometimes seems that anything is possible.