The Premier League is fast reaching its conclusion but, while Chelsea appear to be runaway leaders at the top of the table, there is still plenty to play for elsewhere.
Awards season is upon us, meaning that a selection of players will be vying it out for individual accolades as well as battling for success on a team level.
With that in mind, Sports Mole takes a look at the three leading contenders to land the Golden Boot - the honour awarded to the player who scores the most goals throughout the campaign.
1. Sergio Aguero
Club: Manchester City
Appearances: 28
Goals: 20
© Getty Images
When it comes to making early-season predictions, Sergio Aguero will no doubt have topped the list of most to go on and finish at the summit of the scoring charts. Twenty-three goals in his first top-flight campaign on these shores, followed up by a combined total of 29 in the next two years, has made the South American one of the most feared forwards on the continent.
What makes the former Atletico Madrid man so deadly is his ability to find the net from any position, whether inside the box or out, from a couple of yards - such as that strike against Queens Park Rangers - or 25+ yards, he will often punish defences who fail to shut him out of the game.
Aguero, perhaps more so than any other player in that top band of elite forwards, will often go through barren spells in front of goal. Six games without a goal earlier this campaign in all competitions was followed up by four in his next three. Likewise, a recent six-goal streak of failing to find the net has been met with three strikes in his last two outings.
Having so often fallen short when it comes to finishing top of the scoring pile, Aguero is very much in pole position to push on this term to claim the accolade. If he is to do so, then his four-goal appearance against Spurs in October will be picked out as his finest afternoon.
Yet it was also his crucial strikes in games against Manchester United, Arsenal, QPR, and also a memorable treble against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, which has prevented City from enduring an even worse season than they have.
2. Harry Kane
Club: Tottenham Hotspur
Appearances: 29
Goals: 20
© Getty Images
The fairytale rise of Harry Kane, from a player thrown out on loan to gain experience to the Premier League's deadliest hitman and a fully-fledged England international, has certainly been well documented. Yet his achievements in this breakthrough campaign, in which he has scored 20 league goals and a further 11 elsewhere, should not be played down.
His latest strike, a well-taken shot beyond Tim Krul to secure a 3-1 victory for Spurs at St James' Park last weekend, ensured that he has become the first Tottenham player to hit 30 in a single season since Gary Lineker back in 1991-92 - a year before Kane was even born.
In fact, Kane joins a four-man list of players to have hit 20 goals or more in a Premier League campaign for the club, alongside Gareth Bale, Jurgen Klinsmann and Teddy Sheringham. That is some going for a player who was not handed his first league start of the season until the start of November.
Mauricio Pochettino showed faith in the youngster from that point on, and it is fair to say that he has not looked back. Seven goals in league and cup during December and January has helped propel Kane from back-up option to the first name on the team sheet, but he will be eager to round off what has been a hugely impressive season in style by ousting Aguero - whom he is currently level on goals with - over the coming weeks.
It says a lot that his recent spell of two club games without a goal was considered somewhat of a mini drought, yet he proved the doubters wrong by racking up that record-equalling 30th goal against Newcastle United to ensure that equilibrium has very much been restored.
3. Diego Costa
Club: Chelsea
Appearances: 24
Goals: 19
© Getty Images
He may have gone off the radar a little in recent months, struggling to control his high-profile injury problems which has seen him miss a number of key games, but this has been a highly successful first season in the Premier League for Diego Costa. Chelsea's shock 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace last year is widely considered to be the afternoon in which Jose Mourinho realised that he had a lot of work still to do in his second coming at Stamford Bridge.
The Brazilian-born Spaniard made a blistering start to his Blues career, scoring seven goals in his first four games, in a hot streak which also included a hat-trick against Swansea. His three assists compare weakly to his two direct rivals for the Golden Boot award, but Costa was plucked from Atletico Madrid for one thing and one thing only - to score goals.
Chelsea so often failed to take chances during the last campaign, most notably in that reverse at Selhurst Park which prompted Mourinho to claim that his players "lacked the balls" to go on and challenge for the title. That has certainly not been the case this campaign and, while Eden Hazard is rightly the strong contender to win the Player of the Year award, a huge slice of praise must also go to the fiery Costa.
Just two goals in his last 10 games since mid-January have blighted what has otherwise been a decent campaign, but Costa will no doubt be hoping to put his injury troubles behind him during a football-free summer in order to match his goalscoring heroics next year.
Before then, with a return to action against Arsenal next weekend likely, there is still time for the £32m maestro to usurp Aguero and Kane, as well as holding off the challenge of Charlie Austin who is charging down the outside, to join the likes of Luis Suarez, Robin van Persie, Carlos Tevez and teammate Didier Drogba in winning the much-coveted accolade.
Daniel Lewis
