Van Persie can still overhaul Suarez

10Apr 2013

England - Premier League

Luis Suarez tops the Premier League scoring charts as the season enters its final throes, but he can still be caught, writes Christian Crowther...

After grabbing himself ten Premier League goals from the same amount of games in a phenomenal scoring streak over December and January, not many would have predicted Robin van Persie's latest drought.

The Dutchman is suffering a quite uncharacteristic scoring hiatus by his ridiculous standards, going ten Manchester United appearances without rippling the back of the net.

In that period, Liverpool's Luis Suarez has wasted no time stocking up either, overhauling van Persie's Premier League total of 19 by helping himself to 22 to date.

This has left the Uruguayan as the 1.47 favourite to remain the hottest marksman of the campaign, with van Persie available at 3.8.

Further back on 17 is Gareth Bale, sharing that total with Swansea's Michu. But in light of the Bale's untimely injury, the clock will likely run out on Tottenham's goal machine, while Michu may also be just too far out of touch at this late stage, despite scoring in successive league matches for the first time in 2013.

However, there is plenty of evidence to suggest backers of Manchester's top scorer can still cash in on van Persie when the final totals are tallied.

For starters, Sir Alex Ferguson's side still have seven more top-flight outings to enjoy, whereas Suarez and Liverpool only have six more Premier League fixtures.

Also, it's not like such a master of his craft has lost the art of goalscoring altogether. Van Persie stuck three times for his country in successive qualifiers towards the end of March, including a brace against Romania, so he's actually reacquainted himself with that scoring feeling in recent weeks.

He was particularly unlucky too that his strike against Sunderland was ruled as a Titus Bramble own goal after striking it well.

If you look at United's remaining fixtures, van Persie has actually scored against five of the seven opponents this season alone.

Furthermore, Suarez has now gone three games without a goal himself, so he's hardly in electric form heading into the final fixtures.

Even more crucially, the divisive Uruguayan, who is never far away from the referee's attention, will receive a two-game suspension for reaching 10 bookings if he is carded at Reading this weekend.