Jamie Vardy scored his 109th Premier League goal in Leicester’s 1-0 win over Arsenal on Sunday night. That clinical diving header took him level on the all-time list with Ryan Giggs, who did not have the benefit of 21 Premier League seasons as a striker.
Vardy has already surpassed Cristiano Ronaldo (84), Dennis Bergkamp (87), Ruud van Nistelrooy (95) and Didier Drogba (104). Sadio Mane, who first arrived in the Premier League at the same time in 2014, is behind on 88.
Vardy has scored 109 goals in 216 Premier League appearances/Catherine Ivel/Getty Images
Vardy’s back story is well-told at this point, until he joined Leicester at the age of 25, was not playing in the Football League, and finally made his first-flight debut at the age of 27 in 2014. What did
He struggled in that first Premier League campaign, as did Leicester as a whole. He scored his first top-flight goal in a famous 5–3 win over Manchester United, a game in which he was instrumental in all five goals thanks to his four assists.
But it was another six months before he got his next Premier League goal. However, three more coming in the final weeks of the 2014/15 season helped keep Leicester up and it seems they have never looked back since.
When Vardy scored 24 times during the 2015/16 campaign, he also set a new record for scoring in consecutive games – previously held by the aforementioned Van Nistelrooy. Leicester completed the most fairytale of Premier League title wins.
Vardy scored in 11 consecutive games in 2015/Lawrence Griffiths/Getty Images
But it was no flash in the pan. Vardy kept scoring. He has 109 goals in 216 appearances, giving him a better per game average than Wayne Rooney, Andrew Cole and Robbie Fowler.
What’s more, the 33-year-old, who won the Premier League Golden Boot last season, has scored a disproportionate amount against the top clubs, proving that he is somehow a stat for the division’s smaller teams. Padding isn’t badass – an accusation often leveled above. Strikers
Vardy’s goal against Arsenal at the weekend was his 11th goal against the Gunners in the Premier League. He has scored eight against Manchester City and seven against Liverpool, more against those three clubs than any other.
Goals against Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool alone account for 24% of all his Premier League goals. In total, Vardy has scored 38 times in competition against his so-called ‘Big Six’, with a further five against Tottenham, four against Manchester United and three against Chelsea.
Vardy has scored 26 Premier League goals alone against Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool / PAUL ELLIS/Getty Images
This means that Vardy has scored 35% of his top-flight goals against ‘Big Six’ teams. He has a strike rate of 0.57 goals per game in just these fixtures against the best, compared to 0.48 against all others.
It says a lot about him as a player that he often finds the nest against the best opposition, having scored a hat-trick against Manchester City earlier this season.
As a Premier League player, the only clubs Vardy has not scored against at least 11 times are Wolves, Hull, Cardiff and Middlesbrough, three of which are not currently in the top flight.
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