Anthony Martial stole the show as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's reign as Manchester United manager got off to a perfect start with a 5-1 win at Cardiff City on Saturday night and the French striker should be a serious contender for the Premier League Golden Boot.
The future of Martial has been shrouded in doubt for some time now as he was fined by United during the summer as a consequence of him turning up late for pre-season training following the birth of his child and he struggled to see eye-to-eye with Jose Mourinho. The former United boss appeared unwilling to cut the 23-year-old too much slack and talks over a new contract for the French international had reached an impasse.
However, Martial emerged as an unlikely source of hope during the latter stages of Mourinho's doomed reign as Manchester United supremo and the player was brimming with confidence in his first start for Solskjaer on Saturday.
Martial notched his eighth league goal of the campaign with a wonderfully taken strike in South Wales and he is quietly becoming one of the most prolific forward players in the top-flight.
Martial has scored eight goals in his last ten league appearances for United and he is someone who Solskjaer can build his team around. The forward has managed to put 93% (13 of 14) of his shots on target this season, which is the highest percentage of any player who has scored five or more Premier League goals this season.
Furthermore, no player amongst the leading scorers in the division can match Martial's goals-per-minute rate of a goal every 111 minutes. The nearest challenger for that particular statistic is Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has scored his 12 goals at one every 116 minutes on average.
Premier League Golden Boot Odds:
- 3/1: Aubameyang (12 goals)
- 3/1: Salah (11)
- 10/3: Kane (9)
- 11/2: Aguero (8)
- 12/1: Sterling (9)
- 50/1: Martial (8)
While Aubameyang is 3/1 to win the Golden Boot award for being the top scorer in the league this season, Anthony Martial is a ludicrous 50/1! Admittedly, those odds were trimmed in from 66/1 by bookmakers after his goal against Cardiff City, but it still looks like a mighty big price for a player of his calibre.
It seems remarkable that Martial isn't considerably shorter in the latest betting and with a relatively kind set of fixtures for United to come - Huddersfield at home, Bournemouth at home and Newcastle away - the Red Devils star could fill his boots during the next few weeks.
The man with eight league goals to his name still has some way to go to catch the likes of Aubameyang and Liverpool's Mo Salah, who has scored 11 so far, but it is a task that certainly isn't insurmountable, particularly if his electric performance in Solskjaer's first match as Manchester United manager is anything to go by.