Diego Costa could beat Alan Shearer's Premier League goals record before his 35th birthday, our stats boffins can reveal.
It was a case of another game and another goal for Costa last Sunday, his strike for Chelsea against Southampton making him the sixth quickest ever Premier League striker to reach 40 goals.
In fact, he did so in just 60 games, matching exactly the efforts of both former Blues striker Fernando Torres (although most of his came for Liverpool) and Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
The Spaniard has been banging goals at an impressive rate this season, and only Shearer, Andy Cole and Kevin Phillips have reached the 40-goal mark quicker than Costa.
In fact, if he can keep the engine running, Costa could pass an impressive list of players on the all-time Premier League scoring list before the end of the season.
His 40 goals currently ranks him tied-126th on the all-time scoring list, but if he maintains his form of eight goals through ten weeks of Premier League action, his tally could increase to 62 goals by the end of 2016/17 - which would rank him tied-60th all-time.
It would place him on par with the likes of Robert Pires and David Beckham. Blues fans might also like to know he’d pass Gianfranco Zola.
But how far is Costa from breaking Alan Shearer’s seemingly untouchable record of 260 goal scored in the Premier League? Well, he his currently 151 goals short of Shearer’s mark.
If he maintains his current scoring pace throughout his career, he will need 216 more games to put 151 more goals past opposition keepers. This takes us mid-way through the 2022-23 season. By then, 28 year-old Costa will be a few months past his 34th birthday.
Looking at the current scoring pace of everyone in the Premier League, only Romelu Lukaku and Sergio Aguero are on track to reach Shearer’s mark before Costa might. Lukaku would still be just 30 years old mid-way through the 2022-23 season season when he could tie Shearer’s record.
Lukaku is five years younger than Costa, and with his prime years ahead of him he looks more likely to be able to maintain a high scoring pace than the Spaniard who will turn 30 in a couple of years.
Of course, both still have a long way to go - but if anyone currently in the Premier League is going to break Shearer’s record, Blues fans will hope it’s Costa.
