Europe's most deadly: The game's most lethal striker revealed


With three players on six goals from six games, the race for the Premier League's golden boot looks set to be hotly contested.

Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero, Chelsea new boy Alvaro Morata and Manchester United's summer signing Romelu Lukaku all top the scoring charts after impressive starts to the campaign.

But how do they rank in comparison to the rest of Europe's hotshots?

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BBC Sport takes a look at that and the rest of the key statistics from the weekend.

Who are Europe's early golden shoe contenders?
We're only into the second month of the season and, incredibly, two players are already into double figures.

Monaco striker Radamel Falcao has scored 11 goals in just seven Ligue 1 games while Paulo Dybala has hit 10 in six games for Juventus in Serie A.

In La Liga, Lionel Messi unsurprisingly tops the scoring chart with nine goals from six games.

But while Falcao tops the scoring charts in Europe it is Dybla who is the most deadly finisher in terms of minutes-per-goal.

The 23-year-old Argentina forward averages a goal every 47 minutes. And in the Premier League it Morata who tops that statistic, with the former Real Madrid man bagging every 76 minutes.

Europe's most prolific players so far this season
Player Games played Goals Mins played Mins/Goal
Paulo Dybala (Juventus) 6 10 466 47
Radamel Falcao (Monaco) 7 11 573 52
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 6 9 540 60
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund) 6 8 535 67
Ciro Immobile (Lazio) 6 8 540 68
Edin Dzeko (Roma) 5 6 431 72
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) 6 7 515 74
Dries Mertens (Napoli) 6 6 456 76
Alvaro Morata (Chelsea) 6 6 457 76
Sergio Aguero (Man City) 6 6 467 78
Edinson Cavani (PSG) 7 7 608 87
Mauro Icardi (Inter) 6 6 534 89
Romelu Lukaku (Man Utd) 6 6 540 90
Ince, Redmond... Ronaldo?
What do Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, Huddersfield's Tom Ince and Southampton's Nathan Redmond all have in common?

They all feature highly in a list of Europe's most frustrated footballers when it comes to trying to score this season.

Redmond has had 21 shots on goal in six Premier League games, with only Massimo Coda of Serie A newcomers Benevento having more attempts (23) without scoring in Europe's top five leagues.

Ince, meanwhile, has failed to find the net with his 20 efforts for Huddersfield.

Ronaldo is unlikely to be enjoying Messi's fast start to the season as his struggle in front of goal continues.

The Portugal captain is yet to open his league account for the season despite 18 efforts on goal, 12 of those coming in a single game - the 1-0 defeat by Real Betis last Wednesday.

To be fair, it's not just down to bad form for Ronaldo; he missed the first three La Liga games through suspension after he was sent off in the first leg of the Spanish Supercopa.

However, it does mean for the first time in his career in Spain he has failed to score a league goal before October, with Real Madrid not in La Liga action again until the start of next month. The longest Ronaldo has had to wait before now for a league goal was 21 September, back in 2010.

Click to see content: Totalshots
The long ranger
What's the opposite of a fox in the box? Whatever you call it, Philippe Coutinho is one of them.

The Liverpool forward scored a brilliant free-kick in Saturday's 3-2 win at Leicester, the 16th goal he has scored outside the area since making his debut for the club on 11 February 2013. No player has scored more from outside the box during that time.

Incidentally, Javier Hernandez strengthened his position as the definitive fox in the box with a goal for West Ham in their 3-2 defeat by Tottenham on Saturday. All 40 of the striker's goals in the Premier League have been scored from inside the area.

Most goals scored from outside the box since Coutinho made his debut on 11 February 2013
A rare sight
Super Sunday it was not this weekend as just one Premier League game took place - Brighton edging Newcastle 1-0.

Instead, the majority of the Premier League's big guns were in action on Saturday, with the current top three - Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea - all playing at 3pm.

That's the first time those three sides have all kicked off at that time since October 2015.

A rare sight indeed.BBC

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