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Statistically speaking, Alan Shearer is the greatest goalscorer in Premier League history – that statistic being his famous all-time record of 260 goals in the competition.

Having been involved in the top flight since the first ever Premier League season, Shearer didn’t so much topple another striker to ascend to the goalscoring throne as he did lay down the benchmark practically from the off, amassing an incredible 112 goals by the end of 1995/96 and adding to that haul with every campaign until eventually retiring in 2006.

Accordingly, Shearer is largely unrivalled at the top of the Premier League’s all-time scoring charts, currently standing 62 ahead of his closest competitor, Wayne Rooney. That, combined with the fact he boasts a unique advantage over present day strikers having taken part in the Premier League’s three only 42-game seasons, has created a widely-held belief of Shearer’s staggering total being virtually impenetrable – barring a divine entity of the Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo variety spending his whole career at the top of English football.

But the celebration of the Premier League’s 25th anniversary this summer beckons that theory to be put to the test, asking if we’re in store for another 25 years of Shearer’s goalscoring immortality or whether a striker in the division today can eventually knock the former Blackburn Rovers striker off his historic perch.

With that in mind, we’ve taken a look at five strikers at varying stages of their Premier League careers for varying reasons. As the two Premier League forwards who strike that perfect equilibrium between age, proven netting prowess and ability, Manchester United’s summer signing Romelu Lukaku and Tottenham’s back-to-back Golden Boot winner Harry Kane instantly make the cut.

Rooney, meanwhile, gets the nod as Shearer’s closest rival in the all-time scoring rankings and one-time Manchester rival Sergio Aguero earns his inclusion on the basis of being the most efficient goalscorer in Premier League history in terms of goals-per-minute. And then there’s the opposing end of the spectrum; England youngster Marcus Rashford – who began his senior career with a goalscoring bang and, whether it’s with United or not, is likely to spend the rest of it in the English game.

The criteria they’re judged on is far from being an exact science – but if the future was easy to predict we’d all be millionaires by now, bathing in Jacuzzis of liquid gold scrubbing ourselves with ivory back-scratchers. The key questions being asked are firstly; scoring at the rate of their last three campaigns, how many more seasons would it take for all five strikers to match Shearer’s record? And secondly; scoring at the rate of their last three campaigns, what total would they reach by the age of 35 when Shearer finally hung up his boots? Extended from that, what strike-rates would they need to beat Shearer’s total by the time they’re 35?

Perhaps what stands out most from our results is that the 261 goals needed to dethrone Shearer isn’t actually beyond any of them – in fact, it’s incredibly plausible. But perhaps the least likeliest is Aguero, who would have to score in excess of 23 times per season until the age of 35.

Only three of his six Premier League campaigns thus far have seen him exceed that total and the Argentine’s vitality at Manchester City has waned since Pep Guardiola took the managerial reins last summer. Likewise, Aguero’s suffered his fair share of injury problems down the years and due to turn 30 at the end of next season, those issue will surely catch up with him sooner rather than later.

Similarly but perhaps more realistically, Rooney has some work to do if he’s to surpass Shearer by the end of the next four years, namely bumping up his strike-rate from 3.44 games per goal to 2.45 – essentially shading off 30% of the time it currently takes him to find the net.

But that’s certainly within the realms of possibility following the former United captain’s move to Everton and for all the criticism that’s come his way, Rooney has proved himself to be an incredibly proficient goalscorer down the years, holding the record for both the Red Devils and the England national team. He’s in with a chance of becoming the Premier League’s record holder too, if returning to Goodison helps restore him to somewhere near his former powers.

Rashford, on the other hand, remains a purely speculative candidate at this moment in time. His current Premier League strike-rate stands at 4.3 games per goal, well short of the ratio needed to become the division’s record-goalscorer by 35 – at that rate, he’d need more than 28 seasons to surpass Shearer.

With only ten goals to his name so far, the strike-rate he needs from this point is actually the third-most demanding after Aguero and Lukaku. But the promise Rashford has shown is undoubted and just shy of 16 goals per season seems a viable target for the England prospect, provided he becomes a starting XI regular over the next few years. As previously mentioned, he also has the advantage of being the likeliest to spend his whole career in the top flight.

That leaves us with our two likeliest future record-breakers – Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku, who can both afford to relax their current games-per-goal ratios and still trump Shearer’s record by retirement age. In fact, based on the form of the last three seasons, Kane would need just 6.5 campaigns more to become the Premier League’s top scorer, at which point he’d still be a few months short of his 30th Birthday.

Lukaku, on the other hand, is looking at around a decade of consistently scoring in excess of 15 goals per season – although moving to a bigger club in Manchester United should, in theory, improve his chances of doing so.

But the real question surrounding both strikers is how long they’ll be in the Premier League for. Lukaku has already shown he isn’t one for personal allegiances should a better offer comes along and it seems implausible Kane will continue scoring at the rate his currently is and remain at Tottenham, especially if they continue to narrowly miss out on silverware.

Eventually, Europe’s elite clubs will come calling for them; whoever decides to stay and who elects to leave could well be what determines the Premier League’s next record goalscorer.

Perhaps the most important result, however, is the suggestion that Shearer’s scoring record is by no means as unmovable as it often seems. In fact, the statistics put it well within Kane and Lukaku’s reach based on their current returns, whilst Aguero and Rooney remain rank outsiders and Rashford’s career could turn in one direction or the other.

Far from invincible, and despite his advantage over present day strikers, we could see a new Premier League top scorer within the next five to ten years.

After spending £123.5m on just three full-backs this summer window, City’s splurge has been met mostly by two reactions from neutral – though some not so neutral – onlookers: those who profess outrage at the levels of spending and those who shrug their shoulders.There is, to some degree, a level of justifiable moral outrage at such vast spending on anything that doesn’t obviously help society as a whole.After all, that money could feed starving children or promote world peace. It’s unclear exactly how Manchester City Football Club could achieve these goals. In the end, the money is there, City need defenders, and few would expect them to keep it in the bank account and look forward to adding the interest.That’s probably where the second type of reaction comes in: ‘meh’. There might be a limit, above which spending becomes ethically questionable given what it could be spent on, but that’s a question for governments and probably even FIFA, not a Premier League football club by itself.But that’s not the only reason why the moral outrage shouldn’t really apply.In 2010, City spent around £16m for Aleksandar Kolarov, who this summer departed for Roma after seven years of loyal service to the club. But in the intervening period, City had spent just £10m on full-backs since this summer, buying Gael Clichy for £7m and Maicon for £3m.

That works out to £130m over seven years, or roughly £19m a year, on average, since the signing of Kolarov. The ages of the players involved are also significant. Benjamin Mendy has just turned 23, Danilo has just turned 26 while Kyle Walker is 27.

If Mendy and Danilo could continue for seven years at the club, and Walker for, say, five, that would mean no more full-back spending for another prolonged period, though it might be necessary to refresh the options at some point. Given the longevity and loyalty shown – both by the club and players – around the previous set of full-backs in Pablo Zabaleta, Clichy, Kolarov and Bacary Sagna, it’s not ridiculous to think that City are hoping for a long term of commitment out of their new signings. That would bring the average spending down even closer to zero.

But even if all of that were true, it would still be moot. Mostly on the grounds – popular as they are these days – that you can’t have your cake and eat it. For the last number of years, City have been criticised for their spending, but they’ve also been chastised heavily for their sporting failures, too.

It’s been a while since City last won anything of note – the League Cup a year and a half ago remains the last trophy, and before that, the league title in 2014 is the last major triumph. Trophyless seasons aren’t particularly novel experiences for most Blues, but it’s still not an ideal state of affairs. Hence the criticism, and some keep coming back year after year: that City are weak in defence, that they have an ageing squad, and how do they expect to win trophies with a pair of full-backs Arsenal didn’t want nearly a decade ago?

A new one for last season was the huge question mark that hung over the goalkeeper, something which led to new signing Ederson’s credentials being pored over because he made a mistake on his debut in a pre-season friendly.

With that level of criticism prevalent around the blue half of Manchester for years, how is it even possible to criticise City for spending money to sort out a problem for which they’ve been castigated for years? Why criticise City on sporting grounds only to then criticise them on financial / moral ones when they try to rectify the initial problem?

Funnily enough, though, it’s these sorts of sporting criticisms which put extra pressure on clubs to go out and spend big on players during the transfer window – the media and the fans would start to make noise if they didn’t, and it’s not a million miles from having a knock-on effect on sponsors and other business interests, too, who don’t want to attach their brands Âa club whose fans aren’t responding to it positively. In turn, that drives up the price from the selling club.

That’s not to say such a scenario should happen if City didn’t sign three full-backs, but we’ve created an environment where it’s hardly inconceivable. In a sense, it’s the critics who are to blame, yet they’re the ones continuing to criticise.

It’s the sort of stuff that leads otherwise rational football fans to believe in conspiracies.

According to reports in The Mirror, Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s refusal to sign a new contract is nothing to do with the money.

The 23-year-old has just one year remaining on his Gunners contract and The Mirror says that he has already rejected two offers from the club, although it is believed he is keen to leave to further his career rather than line his pockets.

The report adds that Premier League rivals Liverpool and Chelsea are watching developments closely with Arsene Wenger facing a choice as to whether to sell him this summer or risk losing him for nothing next year if he doesn’t commit his future to the north London outfit.

Arsenal supporters were quick to have their say on the rumour via social media, and while many understand Oxlade-Chamberlain’s frustrations and why he may want to move on, others believe it is to do with the money as he would probably not be guaranteed to play with the likes of Chelsea any more than at the Emirates.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

Celtic’s Champions League ambitions for the season took a huge step in the right direction earlier this week with a 5-0 romping over Astana at Celtic Park.

That’s given Brendan Rodgers’ side a massive advantage for the return leg, not only boasting a five-goal margin but also eliminating the chance of a shock upset on away goals.

Celtic opened their account through an own goal after Tom Rogic broke through the backline with a dazzling run.

Scott Sinclair shirked criticisms of a slow start to the season by bagging a brace, while James Forrest added to the scoring to make it 4-0 and Leigh Griffiths’ shot took a wicked deflection to finish off Celtic’s tally for the evening.

But when we asked Celtic supporters earlier this week to vote for their Man of the Match, none of the goalscorers or own-goal creators won our poll. That honour went to summer signing Olivier Ntcham, who asserted real authority over the midfield alongside Scott Brown.

Is Ntcham Celtic’s signing of the transfer window thus far? Let us know by commenting below…

England moved a step closer to securing their spot at the 2018 World Cup after they came from a goal down to beat Slovakia 2-1 at Wembley on Monday night, but the match may be remembered more for an incident involving Tottenham’s Dele Alli.

The Three Lions recovered from a third-minute Stanislav Lobotka goal to first equalise later in the first half through Alli’s Spurs teammate Eric Dier, before Marcus Rashford scored the winning goal after the break.

15 minutes from time, the 20-year-old nudged the ball past former Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel before running into the veteran centre-back, and was caught on camera producing a middle finger gesture after a foul wasn’t given.

It was suggested by some that it was aimed at the referee, but Alli later claimed via his official Twitter account that it was aimed jokingly at Kyle Walker.

Tottenham supporters were quick to have their say on the incident via social media, and they were divided with their opinions.

While some don’t want the attacking midfielder to change, others believe it might be time for him to be more mature on the pitch.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

Tottenham Hotspur banished their Wembley hoodoo on Wednesday night as the London club recorded a 3-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.

The win meant that Spurs made the perfect start to their 2017-18 group-stage campaign, with a double from Harry Kane and early Son Hueng-min strike ensuring that Mauricio Pochettino’s side would collect all three points.

Belgian centre-back Jan Vertonghen put in another impressive display, but the 30-year-old’s night ended in disappointment after picking up a late red card.

As it transpired, Vertonghen’s red did not mean much in terms of the match, but the defender will be absent for Tottenham’s next Champions League game away to APOEL.

On Thursday morning, Vertonghen took to Twitter to reveal his delight with the win over Dortmund, but the centre-back made no mention of the sending off.

The Tottenham supporters were quick to remind the 94-time international footballer that he had received a red card against Dortmund, but the club’s fanbase were still delighted with Vertonghen’s performance.

With another three points gained on Saturday, things are looking up for Steve Bruce’s Aston Villa in the English Championship.

The 1-0 win over Bolton Wanderers means the Villans have now won their last four fixtures in the division, propelling them up to seventh place in the table, just shy of the play-off positions.

However there was a major negative coming out of Saturday’s match and that was the red card shown to left-back Neil Taylor in the dying moments of the game. He was judged to have gone in heavy on Adam Le Fondre and given his marching orders.

While Bruce has confirmed they will appeal the decision, there’s every chance that will be rejected and if that’s the case, Villa will lose the defender for the entirety of October to a three-match ban.

With little cover available in the position, the situation has left supporters very worried indeed.

They’re not looking forward to having him missing and took to Twitter to share their thoughts in the aftermath of Saturday’s match…

Everton seemed like they were heading in the right direction in the summer after majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri loosened the pursestrings to spend more than £100m on new signings.

Wayne Rooney, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Jordan Pickford and Michael Keane were among the new arrivals, but the Toffees did lose Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United.

The Toffees have maintained that they are working towards breaking into the top six in the Premier League, but the season has got off to a poor start.

Ronald Koeman has overseen just two victories in six top-flight matches, while the team’s Europa League campaign is struggling given that they have lost their first two group matches.

On Thursday night, the Toffees were leading Apollon Limassol 2-1 until the 88th minute when the Cypriot side snatched an equaliser at Goodison Park.

Earlier that day Carlo Ancelotti was sacked as manager of Bayern Munich, and now Everton fans are keen for the club to capitalise on this opportunity by dismissing Koeman and bringing in the successful Italian.

Chelsea will look to bounce back from the disappointing defeat against Crystal Palace at the weekend and pick up their third successive Champions League win when they host AS Roma at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, and Blues fans are divided on whether Michy Batshuayi should start.

The Belgium international was handed only his third Premier League start since joining the club from Marseille in 2016, but he was taken off before the hour-mark after failing to impress as Antonio Conte’s men were beaten 2-1 by the bottom team.

With Alvaro Morata missing the game at Selhurst Park through injury, it remains to be seen whether he will be fit enough to feature from the start against the Serie A outfit, with Batshuayi likely to deputise again if the Spaniard isn’t quite yet ready to feature from the beginning.

Chelsea supporters were quick to have their say on the Belgian via social media, and they were divided with their opinions.

While some want him to start to “silence the haters”, others said they are “not watching the game” if he does play.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane is reportedly a potential injury doubt for the clash against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday, and Spurs fans have urged manager Mauricio Pochettino to leave him out if he isn’t fully fit.

The England international was replaced by Fernando Llorente in the 88th minute of the 4-1 win against Liverpool on Sunday and was seen feeling his thigh, before he then wasn’t part of the squad that lost 3-2 to West Ham United in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup at Wembley on Wednesday.

Press Association journalist Tom Allnutt has suggested that the 24-year-old was tired and had cramp against the Reds rather than being injured, and the club are confident that he will be ok against the Red Devils.

Tottenham supporters were quick to have their say on the situation via social media, and while some think he will play, others have urged Pochettino not to risk the in-form centre-forward if he isn’t 100% ready with so many games coming up.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

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