Middlesbrough are on course to finish the season with fewer Premier League goals than Romelu Lukaku, although that will not be the first time such a scenario has happened.
The giant Everton striker scored his 22nd and 23rd goals of the campaign in his side’s 4-2 win against Leicester City at Goodison Park on Super Sunday, a day after Boro were held to a goalless draw at home to Burnley.
That stalemate on Saturday was the struggling north-east team’s seventh goalless draw in the league already this season, while Steve Agnew’s men have only netted 22 times in total while slipping to 19th in the table.
In fact, fans at the Riverside have seen fewer strikes than at any other Premier League ground so far this season (29 – 12 scored, 17 conceded), with Lukaku currently set to end the campaign with more goals to his name than Middlesbrough as a whole.
However, such a situation has happened on five previous occasions, the first when the Premier League’s all-time leading scorer, Alan Shearer, recorded as many goals (34) during Blackburn Rovers’ 1994/95 title-winning campaign as Crystal Palace managed on their way to being relegated.
In the 2002/03 season, Ruud van Nistelrooy’s 25 strikes helped fire Manchester United towards the title, while Arsenal’s Thierry Henry (24) and Southampton’s James Beattie (23) were also among the goals.
And that trio of top-notch forwards all registered more goals than Sunderland (21), who not surprisingly were relegated after finishing bottom of the Premier League in that campaign.
But all three players’ hauls dwarfed that of bottom-of-the-table Derby County, whose paltry total of 20 goals in their 38 games saw the Rams end the season with a total of just 11 points.
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