The Premier League makes its much-anticipated return this evening as Sheffield United travel to relegation-threatened Aston Villa and Manchester City host Arsenal - both fixtures coming exactly 100 days after the last top-flight outing in England.

Those two contests will be the first of the 92 fixtures left to fulfil at the end of the coronavirus-affected 2019-20 campaign and, while the destination of the title looks all but secured, there are plenty of other issues which are yet to be resolved.

One of those is the Golden Boot race, which is fascinatingly poised with most clubs having nine games of the campaign remaining.

Here, Sports Mole takes an in-depth look at how the battle to be top scorer is shaping up.

Leicester City's Jamie Vardy is the man leading the race for the Golden Boot as things stand, boasting 19 top-flight goals in 2019-20 thanks largely to a prolific run in the closing months of last year.

The former England striker scored in eight consecutive matches between October 19 and December 8, netting 11 goals in that time to soar to the top of the scoring charts.

After drawing a blank to end that run, Vardy then scored against Manchester City before embarking on a seven-game drought which he finally ended with a brace against Aston Villa just before lockdown.

The 33-year-old is now on 99 Premier League goals in his career and will expect to join the exclusive 100 club in the coming weeks, while also being in pole position to claim his first Golden Boot.

There are plenty of world-class forwards who also have their sights set on that target, though, and Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is just two goals behind with a game in hand over Vardy as he looks to finish top of the charts for the second successive season.

Manchester City's record goalscorer Sergio Aguero also has 10 possible fixtures left to play and, with 16 goals, is only three behind Vardy - although with matches coming thick and fast and a Champions League chance on the horizon in August, the Argentine is highly unlikely to start all of his side's remaining games.

The stats suggest that Aguero is well-placed to challenge for what would only be his second Premier League Golden Boot, though; he has averaged a goal every 88 minutes during his time on the field this season, which is the best scoring rate of his entire Man City career.

Also in the mix are Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah (16) and Sadio Mane (14), both of whom shared the award with Aubameyang last season.

Indeed, Salah has claimed the Golden Boot in two successive campaigns and could become only the third player - after Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry - to make that a hat-trick of awards.

Manchester United's Marcus Rashford - currently on 14 goals - could also now be back in the running having recovered from a back injury during lockdown, while Southampton's Danny Ings will hope to pick up where he left off having already scored 15 times this term.

Another interesting element of the race could be the Bundesliga trend of away teams faring much better with games being played behind closed doors - something which could bode well for Vardy, Aubameyang and Raheem Sterling, all of whom have scored nine times on the road already this season.

Salah, by contrast, has scored 14 of his 16 goals at home and may struggle to maintain that form without the Anfield crowd there to roar him on.