the premier league golden boot is one of the most sought after individual prizes in the game   and this season’s competition is delicately poised for the final run in the three main contenders   chelsea’s diego costa on 19, tottenham hotspur’s harry kane on 19 and manchester city’s sergio aguero on 17   are all in with a chance of winning it will it go down to form? will it be rocked by injury and suspension? will it have the fairytale conclusion that so many would love to see? sportsmail takes a look at the runners and riders in the race for the golden boot the race for the golden boot seems to be between harry kane (left), diego costa (centre) and sergio aguero  left foot: 5  right foot: 10  head: 4  minutes per goal: 9826  harry kane, tottenham hotspur  can harry kane’s whirlwind season continue right until the end or will it run out of air? his hat trick against leicester in tottenham’s last league match just goes to show how quickly the goalscorers chart can change as he leapt to catch diego costa within the space of 90 minutes ultimately, any englishman and most neutrals would want to see kane top at the end of the campaign, regardless of which team they support, given his story kane’s main downfall will be his lack of experience hopefully his youthful exuberance will not fade into nervous tension costa, 26, and aguero, 26, are seasoned experts compared to the 21 year old, more aware of what is required to find the back of the net after a long campaign when the thighs ache and the quads burn tottenham hotspur's kane was 500/1 to be the premier league's top goalscorer at the start of the season  burnley (a) (scored 1 goal against) aston villa (h) 1  newcastle united (a) 1  southampton (a) manchester city (h) stoke city (a) hull city (a) 1  everton (a) record against remaining teams: scored against 4/8 (four goals total) this zonal map shows where kane scored his 19 goals this season for tottenham in the premier league  this pitch view map shows where kane scored his goals from around the 18 yard box for tottenham  left foot: 5  right foot: 11  head: 3  minutes per goal: 10242  diego costa, chelsea  the snarling, street fighting chelsea striker is joint top of the goalscorers chart, but has played fewer games to reach his total goals tally and has one more to play than his two main rivals forget kane and aguero, however, costa’s main adversary is himself his aggressive style of play means he is the most likely of the three to pick up a suspension he is already on eight domestic yellow cards for the season and was retrospectively banned for three matches for a stamp on liverpool’s emre can chelsea also have a tougher run in than tottenham and manchester city they still have to face manchester united and liverpool at home and arsenal away having said that, costa has already scored against arsenal and liverpool this season and is yet to face united who have had an unstable defence chelsea striker costa is among the best signings of the season and has 19 goals in the premier league  stoke city (h) queens park rangers (a) manchester united (h) arsenal (a) (scored 1 goal against) leicester city (a) 1  crystal palace (h) liverpool (h) 1  west bromwich albion (a) 1  sunderland (h) record against remaining teams: scored against 4/9 (four goals total) this zonal map shows where costa scored his 19 goals this season for chelsea in the premier league  this pitch view map shows where costa scored his goals from around the 18 yard box for chelsea  left foot: 4  right foot: 13  head: 0  minutes per goal: 10753  sergio aguero, manchester city  he is the rank outsider, but one who you would bet against at your peril aguero is trailing the other two by two goals, but he has scored four in one game this season, against tottenham who he will face again in city’s remaining eight games of the three strikers, aguero is by far the best finisher who can conjure a goal, or two, from nowhere in a game he has already scored eight times against the last eight teams city have to face   the same amount as costa and kane’s record put together in their last fixtures of the season injury will be aguero’s main concern the knee injury he suffered in december cost him a month out and he has failed to consistently string together games  since he moved there four years ago manchester city striker aguero has 17 goals and is just two behind the leading premier league goalscorers  crystal palace (a) manchester united (a) (scored 1 goal against) west ham (h) aston villa (h) 1  tottenham hotspur (a) 4  queens park rangers (h) 2  swansea city (a) southampton (h) record against remaining teams: scored against 4/8 (eight goals total) this zonal map shows where aguero scored his 19 goals this season for city in the premier league  this pitch view map shows where aguero scored his goals from around the 18 yard box for city  my golden boot guestimate…  this is, obviously, no exact science you can analyse all the statistics, numbers and records in the world and the enigma of chance will always rear its head for example, costa has scored more of his goals, eight, against teams currently sitting from sixth to 10th, but only plays one of those, stoke kane has netted eight of his strikes against teams now in the bottom five, and has two of those, aston villa and burnley, remaining conversely, aguero has a more even spread against teams throughout the table and aguero has a far better early season record against city’s last teams than the other two but then aguero has not scored in five games, costa has two in last two and kane six in his last four my heart says kane, but my head goes with costa, so i choose the chelsea man charlie austin, queens park rangers (15 goals) left foot: 2  right foot: 10  head: 3  queens park rangers striker charlie austin is four behind the top goalscorers on 15 for the season  olivier giroud, arsenal (13 goals) left foot: 8  right foot: 1  head: 4  arsenal are well represented in the top five goalscorers this season so far with olivier giroud on 13  alexis sanchez, arsenal (13 goals) left foot: 0  right foot: 11  head: 2  alexis sanchez is another arsenal star among the top premier league goalscorers with 13 to his name  the graphics used for kane, costa and aguero's goals were provided by squawka 
harry kane diego costa premier league the tottenham hotspur chelsea manchester city's sergio aguero qpr charlie austin arsenal alexis sanchez olivier giroud the golden boot
harry kane and diego costa top the premier league goalscoring charts . the tottenham hotspur and chelsea striker have 19 goals apiece . manchester city's sergio aguero trails behind with 17 goals this season . qpr's charlie austin (15) and arsenal's alexis sanchez and olivier giroud (both 13) bring up the rear in the race for the golden boot 