Lionel Messi? Radamel Falcao? Alvaro Morata? Who is Europe's most deadly striker?

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Radamel Falcao, Alvaro Morata, Lionel Messi and Paul DybalaImage source, Getty Images

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 are joint top of the scoring charts after impressive starts to the campaign.

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

BBC Sport cross examines Europe's most clinical strikers and the rest of the key statistics from the weekend.

Europe's 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 Dybala 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 is 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?

Image source, Getty Images

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.

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The greatest team goal in Premier League history?

Manchester City appear to have nailed the art of a team goal.

Against West Brom in the League Cup on Wednesday, a move involving an incredible 52 passes and all 11 City players led to Leroy Sane scoring his first goal in a 2-1 victory.

Pep Guardiola's side followed that up with another outstanding collective effort against Crystal Palace on Saturday. A total of 31 passes were played by City's 10 outfield players in the build-up to Fabian Delph scoring his side's fifth in the 5-0 win at Etihad Stadium.

Image source, Opta
Image caption,

Manchester City's 31-pass move in the build up to Fabian Delph's goal on Saturday

It was a hugely-impressive move but it is some way off the record for the most consecutive passes in the Premier League since Opta started recording the statistic in 2010.

That belongs to Tottenham, whose players completed 48 consecutive passes in the lead up to Nacer Chadli's goal against QPR in August 2014.

Total passes completed before a goal in the Premier League since 2010-11

Passes

Player

Team

Opposition

Date

48

Nacer Chadli

Tottenham

QPR

24/08/2014

45

Juan Mata

Man Utd

Southampton

20/09/2015

40

Morgan Schneiderlin

Southampton

Newcastle

13/09/2014

37

Ashley Young

Man Utd

Blackburn

02/04/2012

33

Gervinho

Arsenal

Wigan

03/12/2011

32

Mario Balotelli

Man City

Aston Villa

28/12/2010

31

Fabian Delph

Man City

Crystal Palace

23/09/2017

City stay slick

Another week, another big Manchester City win.

The 5-0 thumping of Palace means Pep Guardiola's side are the first team to have scored five or more goals in three consecutive top-flight matches for almost 60 years following a 5-0 defeat of Liverpool and a 6-0 win against Watford.

Blackburn were the last team to achieve the feat in the 1958-59 season.

City have now scored 21 goals after just six games, but does a big-scoring start to the season usually lead to winning the Premier League?

It is only the fifth time in Premier League history that the team top of the table after six games has scored 21 or more goals and on those previous four occasions, none of the sides have gone on to win the title.

Manchester United had scored 22 goals at the same stage of the 2011-12 campaign but it was Manchester City who were crowned champions while Chelsea (21 goals after six games in 2010-11), Arsenal (21 in 2004-05) and Newcastle (22 in 1994-95) also ultimately failed to hold on to top spot.

Best keep the champagne on ice for City, because there is a long way to go yet.

Kane the king of London

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Harry Kane has had 39 shots on goal in the Premier League so far this season, 12 more than any other player

August is well and truly behind Harry Kane.

The Tottenham and England striker famously struggles to score in the first month of the season but has more than made up for that in September, with eight goals in six appearances for club and country.

Two of those goals came against West Ham on Saturday. Not only were they Kane's first-ever goals away to the Hammers but they also took his record in top-flight London derbies to 21 goals in 29 games - an impressive ratio of a goal every 113 minutes.

No other player has a better record in derby matches in England's capital city.

Best minutes per goal record in London derbies

Player

Goals

Mins/Goal

Harry Kane

21

113

Thierry Henry

43

114

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

22

136

Jurgen Klinsmann

11

137

Robin van Persie

25

145

Dimitar Berbatov

17

154

Ian Wright

28

160

Olivier Giroud

17

163

Efan Ekoku

11

174

Teddy Sheringham

32

176

Could Palace beat Derby record?

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

No player has missed more big chances in the Premier League than Christian Benteke (six)

This season marks the 10th anniversary of a Premier League record being set, but it's one that Derby fans won't feel like celebrating.

The Rams famously set the lowest-ever Premier League points total by picking up just 11 points over the course of the 38-game campaign.

Crystal Palace, though, are threatening to take that record from Derby as they continued to set unwanted records with another defeat on Saturday.

The 5-0 loss at Manchester City means Palace are the first side in English professional football history to lose their first six games of the season without scoring a single goal.

Even Derby managed a win by the sixth game of that dreadful 2007-08 campaign, beating Newcastle 1-0.

The last time a team lost their opening six games in a top-flight season and avoided relegation was in 1983-84, when Leicester City ended up in 15th place.

But there is, at least, some hope for Palace. Only Manchester City have missed more golden opportunities, external to score than the Premier League's bottom club and they are, on average, missing two big chances a game to score.

The Eagles are getting in the right places but a mixture of good defending, poor finishing and just plain bad luck are conspiring against them.

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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.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

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.

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