Southampton striker Danny Ings hit his second brace of the season on Sunday to help the Saints to a 3-1 victory away to Watford.
Ings has been in sparkling form all season for Southampton and is enjoying his most productive Premier League campaign to date. Having missed substantial game time in recent years due to injury, Ings is fit and firing for the Saints.
His first goal of the day came in the 16th minute, when he dribbled past Watford defenders to rifle a low shot into the corner of the net from just outside the box.
Danny Ings doing Danny Ings things.
The hometown hero scores his 20th goal of the season for Southampton, with 17 in the Premier League. Lovely control, composure and finish. Textbook Ings. #SaintsFC #WATSOU pic.twitter.com/s1JujFoQjS— Joe Prince-Wright (@JPW_NBCSports) June 28, 2020
Later on in the second half, Ings took advantage of a misplaced throw from goalie Ben Foster to advance into the box and strike for the second time. While the Saints may have started to sweat after a late Jan Bednarek own-goal brought Watford back within one, James Ward-Prowse reclaimed the two-goal lead with an 82nd-minute free kick.
The double against Watford takes Ings up to 18 goals so far this season, good for second in the league behind only Jamie Vardy on 19. He has scored 43% of 13th-placed Saints' league goals this campaign. With six games left to play, Ings is ahead of star forwards Mohamed Salah and Pierre-Emerick Aubamayeng (both 17), Sergio Agüero (16) and Sadio Mané (15).
Should he keep up his goal-scoring form and beat Vardy and the others to the Premier League Golden Boot, Ings would become the first player from a team outside the top six to claim the award since the 1999-00 season, when Kevin Phillips scored 30 goals for Sunderland.
Danny Ings has scored more non-penalty goals than any other player in the Premier League so far this season.
32 games
18 goals scored
18 non-penalty goalsStart giving him spot-kicks and he might win the Golden Boot. pic.twitter.com/4fswSmMLFP
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) June 28, 2020
With an additional three goals in cup competitions this season, Ings now has 21 overall. Ings spent time in the Saints academy as a boy before being released and moving to nearby Bournemouth. Now back at the club he grew up supporting, he is the first Saints player to reach 20 goals in a season since club legend Rickie Lambert scored 31 times in the Championship in the 2011-12 campaign.
