Is Everton’s Lukaku the best striker in the Premier League?

Everton striker Romelu Lukaku currently sits on top of the English Premier League’s Top Scorers table. Lukaku has managed to score 24 goals in 32 EPL games while also contributing 6 assists. The stats show consistent improvement in Lukaku’s numbers over the last few years, but does that necessarily make him the EPL’s best striker?

For the 2014-15 season, Lukaku finished the EPL season with 10 goals and 5 assists in 36 league games while last season saw him score an impressive tally of 18 goals while providing 6 assists in 37 league games. A closer look shows Lukaku has struggled to score against the big teams. He failed to score against Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal so far this season. He did manage to score a goal against Tottenham while also scoring two goals against Manchester City, a goal in each of the two league clashes. Tottenham’s defending is perhaps the best in EPL as witnessed by the club conceding just 22 goals, but City’s defensive line has not earned much respect from pundits during the current campaign.

Romelu-Lukaku-Everton

Add to that the fact that Lukaku scored a hat-trick against Sunderland another 4 goals in a game against Bournemouth on February 4th, 2017 then one begins to see the reasoning behind the criticism of Lukaku’s inability to rise to the occasion in big games.

In all fairness to Lukaku, of the big names he left in his wake while rising to the top of the scoring charts, only the experienced Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Manchester City hero Sergio Aguero have done better against the top teams. Aguero, in particular, has been impressive in recent weeks and has hit the back of the net in the last 5 Premier League games, including a goal each against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Tottenham’s Harry Kane, in second place with 20 Premiership goals, has done most of his damage against the weaker teams. So where does that leave Lukaku? He is still just 23-years-old and as many critics believe strikers often peak when they reach their late 20s. To Lukaku’s credit, he has shown steady improvement during the last 3 years. Perhaps a move to one of the big Premier League sides can better define where Lukaku stands among the EPL’s top strikers but what do you think?

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