Lukaku, Kane, Salah: Who will win the 2021/22 Premier League Golden Boot award?

With the start of the new Premier League season now less than a few hours away from kick-off, GIVEMESPORT's writers and contributors have been giving their predictions ahead of the return of the English top flight.

One of Britain's oldest football rivalries gets underway on Friday evening, with Brentford and Arsenal meeting in London at 8pm, which will give Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ivan Toney the chance to get a head start on their closest rivals.

Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah and Raheem Sterling are among the bookies' favourites to win the coveted prize, but as we all know, there can only be one winner.

So who are we backing to shine? Well, to make life that little bit easier for everyone, we've picked out ten contenders of varying likelihood to keep an eye on.

10. Edinson Cavani
Don't sleep on 'El Matador', who boasts an impressive record for Manchester United and will likely be flanked by a formidable attacking duo of Mason Greenwood and Jadon Sancho. Not to mention Bruno Fernandes, but more on him later.

The Red Devils have a fairly decent start to the season against rivals Everton, Leeds United and Southampton and Cavani is a bit of a wrecking ball so will be licking his lips at their leaky defences.

9. Danny Ings
Speaking of Southampton... Oh wait, actually, probably better not. Danny Ings' move to Aston Villa caught everyone by surprise, not least of all Oriol Romeu, who revealed the rest of the squad only found out after the Saints' 1-0 friendly win over Levante.

Despite the loss of Jack Grealish however, it's obvious that Villa are building something, and Ings could be a vital part of that, provided he can stay injury-free, of course.

8. Patrick Bamford
While this isn't a slight on Bamford as such, it's just the fact that we feel as a whole that other teams who find themselves in a similar position to Leeds United have strengthened their squads in the right areas at the time of writing.

However, that can all change between now and the end of the transfer window, so really it is anybody's guess.

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7. Jamie Vardy
'Jamie Vardy's having a party...' Now, where have we heard that one before?

Coincidentally, it's also the exact same spot he ended up in last season.

6. Bruno Fernandes
Look, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side win A LOT of penalties, and Bruno Fernandes also scores A LOT of penalties. Don't believe me? Well, see for yourself.

He may not win it, but he'll certainly be up there.

5. Ollie Watkins
I feel like we're probably in danger of repeating ourselves here but if Dean Smith can get this team together and get them firing on all cylinders they could pose a serious threat to the rest of the division

Watkins is their figurehead in attack, ably supported by the likes of Leon Bailey, Anwar El Ghazi and Bertrand Traore who will all be looking to supply him.

4. Raheem Sterling

Manchester City are favourites for a reason and with Sterling back to his goalscoring best once again they're a truly terrifying prospect.

Sterling struck in England's first three games at Euro 2020 and will be hell-bent on banishing the nightmare of 2020-21.

3. Mohamed Salah
Been there, done it, and worn the T-shirt. Next.

2. Romelu Lukaku
Big Rom is back, and this time he means business.

1. Harry Kane
Who else? Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane is the current holder and is one of only three players to have won it for a third time, the others being Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry, which is fine company indeed. It's hard to bet against him doing it again.

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