On Saturday, Oct. 24, Leicester City took on Crystal Palace in a match that featured only one goal. The goal gave Leicester City a much needed three points in the Premier League standings, but it held way more significance for the man who scored it, cementing Jamie Vardy with a place in Premier League history alongside the likes of Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
That goal made him the league leader to this point in the season with 10, but, more significantly, Vardy scored a goal in a seventh straight game, making him only the eighth player in EPL history with a streak of seven consecutive games with a goal scored. (Update: As of Saturday, October 31, Vardy extended his scoring streak to 8 straight games, notching another against West Brom and bringing him even closer to the Premier League scoring record.)
Over those seven games Vardy has amassed a total of nine total goals, and with his 10 overall goals for the season in the first 10 games he not only has a chance to break the consecutive games with a goal scored record, but he could be on his way to one of the most historic individual scoring seasons in EPL history. How does this stack up against the other record seasons in the EPL? Could we be watching one of the greatest scoring seasons of all time?
Jamie Vardy Compared To Other Streaks
Let’s start by comparing Vardy’s streak against the current Premiere League record. Right now with a goal in seven straight, that makes him one of eight players to reach this feat. It also leaves him just three games shy of Ruud van Nistelrooy, who holds the EPL record with 10 consecutive games with a goal scored which he set over the course of two seasons back in 02-03 and 03-04.
(Update: Vardy's current 8 game streak puts him in more elite company, with only 2 Premier League players ahead of him for the record books. Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge (nine) and former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy (10) are the only ones to have scored in more successive games than Vardy.)
In those 10 games over two seasons Ruud van Nistelrooy scored 15 total goals, which means by simple math that for Vardy to equal that same tally he will need six goals over the next three contests.
What is important to point out is that right now Vardy is one of eight players in history with seven straight, however, if he scores in his next game that puts him as one of only three to achieve this and, considering the men who have played in the EPL, that is something extremely special.
It should be noted that although eight straight would make him one of three players to do it Ruud van Nistelrooy had a streak of at least eight twice in his career so it would be the fourth time in the history of the league that it has been accomplished.
The second part of this spectacular season that should be pointed out is that Vardy currently is scoring at the ratio of 1:1 goal/game. There is a long way to go in this season but if he continues at this pace that would leave him with 38 goals in a single season breaking the current record held by Andrew Cole of Newcastle United who scored 34 back in 93-94. With a long way to go it is way too early to think this record is in jeopardy, but what a season it would be if it fell.
Although Vardy has already notched a place in scoring history in the Premier League with what he has accomplished to this point, when you look at the greatest streaks over the years across all of soccer he still has a long way to go.
The easiest place to begin is with the record holder who is no stranger to scoring records of all kinds, Lionel Messi. While playing in La Liga for FC Barcelona in 12-13 Messi scored in a record 21 consecutive games, in which he scored a total of 33 goals, which is three times as long as Vardy’s current streak.
So, to put that into perspective, in order for Vardy to match Messi’s stats for this record he will need to score at least one goal in his next 14 games, and over those 14 games he will need to average around 1.7 goals per match.
Next up on the record setting list happened in Bundesliga in the 69-70 season when Gerd Muller for Bayern Munich put a 16 game streak together in which he totaled 23 overall goals.
Other impressive streaks are 15 games by Jaime Riveros in 2004 playing for Santiago Wanderers in Chile, Peter Dubovsky of the Slovan Bratislava and Tom Phillipson of Wolverhampton who both recorded a goal in 13 straight and a handful of other players who had streaks of 11 straight or 10 over several leagues.
Now this is not an attempt to downplay the achievements of Jamie Vardy and what he has done to this point in the Premier League. In fact when you look at his current streak against that of other EPL greats it is an amazing feat and if he can continue it could be the greatest in Premier League history.
He has the potential to put one of the greatest scoring streaks in the history of the sport together when it is all said and done. It is not an exact apples for apples comparison when comparing across other leagues as the style of play for each league is not the same. Some leagues, like La Liga, are better known as higher scoring more than others, which will affect the streaks for each individual.
Rather, this is a way to acknowledge greatness that has already been achieved by some of the greatest to ever play this sport and realize that what is happening right now should be appreciated on the level with these streaks.
Leicester City will play West Bromwich on Saturday October 31st which will give Vardy his next opportunity at history. The team is probably just focused on getting a win, but an eighth straight goal wouldn’t hurt on the way to a victory.
