Harry Kane wins Premier League golden boot

Ever since his winner against Manchester United, Harry Kane has had an eye on the Premier League golden boot. Creating chances for him appears to have been Tottenham Hotspur’s primary aim since they clinched second place, and they succeeded in getting him to 29 goals, good enough for best in England’s top flight.

Kane followed up his four-goal effort against Leicester City on Thursday with three more goals on Sunday. He scored the first two early, creating a gap between him and Romelu Lukaku that was insurmountable for the Everton man, even though Everton got to play for 75-plus minutes against a 10-man Arsenal. Lukaku scored once, but still finished four goals behind Kane.

Lukaku’s fans will point to the fact that he has just one penalty goal this season, while Kane has five, putting the two level on open play goals. But Kane’s racked up his goal tally much more quickly than his competitors — he only played 2537 minutes during this campaign, while Lukaku played 3357 minutes and Alexis Sanchez, who scored 24 goals, played 3335 minutes.

Kane has scored more goals this season than the Premier League’s all-time second-leading scorer, Wayne Rooney, has ever scored in one campaign. His four hat tricks this season equal the all-time single-season record set by Alan Shearer.

This is Kane’s third consecutive season with 20-plus league goals, and the third straight campaign that he’s improved on his previous season’s goal tally. If you’re wondering what kind of records Kane can chase down, he’s currently just behind the pace set by Shearer, the Premier League’s all-time leading scorer. Kane currently has 78 Premier League goals, while Shearer had 81 goals through the same number of full top flight seasons, at roughly the same age. Thierry Henry also had his first three Premier League seasons at a similar age, scoring 58 goals during that spell.