Record number of goalscorers on course to score more than 20 goals this season

The race for the Premier League Golden Boot is set to be the most competitive in 20 years with a record number of players on course to score more than 20 goals this season.

After 22 matches, three players share the lead in the scorers' charts: Chelsea's Diego Costa, Manchester United's Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal, each on 14 goals.

Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane has netted 13, while Sunderland's Jermain Defoe and Romelu Lukaku, of Everton, have 12 goals each.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, of Manchester United, is one of three players to have scored 14 PL goals this season

If these six continue scoring at their current rate they will each exceed 20 goals by the season's end.

This could be the first time as many as six players have reached the 20-goal mark in one season since 1994/95, when the Premier League was a 42-match competition.

With 11 goals from 15 matches 2014/15 Golden Boot winner Sergio Aguero is on course for 19.9 goals this season

Not in the top six but likely to feature in the final reckoning, Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero who has scored 11 goals in 15 matches, meaning he is well placed to hit the 20-goal mark.

Top PL scorers 2016/17

Player Goals Diego Costa, Alexis Sanchez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic 14 Harry Kane 13 Jermain Defoe, Romelu Lukaku 12 Sergio Aguero 11 Dele Alli 10

Only in three seasons of the Premier League have five or more players managed more than 20 goals in a single campaign.

Six players did so in 1993/94 and in 1994/95, while five reached the milestone in 2009/10.

Top PL scorers 1993/94

Player Goals Andrew Cole (NEW) 34 Alan Shearer (BLB) 31 Matthew Le Tissier (SOU) 25 Chris Sutton (NOR) 25 Ian Wright (ARS) 23 Peter Beardsley (NEW) 21

With 34 goals Andrew Cole was one of six players to find the net at least 20 times in the Premier League in 1993/94

Top PL scorers 1994/95

Alan Shearer (BLB) 34 Robbie Fowler (LIV) 25 Les Ferdinand (QPR) 24 Stan Collymore (NFO) 22 Andrew Cole (NEW/MUN) 21 Jurgen Klinsmann (TOT) 21 Player Goals

Chelsea's Frank Lampard was among five players to breach the 20-goal mark when he struck 22 times in 2009/10

The closest finish for the top goalscorer award took place in back-to-back seasons when three players shared the Golden Boot in 1997/98 (Dion Dublin, Michael Owen and Chris Sutton with 18 goals) and the next season when Owen, Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink and Dwight Yorke matched that tally.

In 1997/98 the top eight goalscorers were separated by three goals and this season could be a similarly competitive finish as Spurs midfielder Dele Alli, who has scored 10 goals, has hit a rich vein of scoring form, finding the net seven times in his last five PL matches.

Top 8 PL goalscorers 1997/98