Kevin Viveros leads the scoring chart by 5

Kevin Viveros sits top of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A scoring chart with 21 goals for Paranaense. The nearest challenger, Pedro of Flamengo, has 16. That is a gap of 5.

It is not a small cushion. Five goals in a single Brazilian season is roughly a fifth of a good striker's entire output, and the chasing pack has to close it while Kevin Viveros keeps adding to his own total. Pedro is the only man within reach: Gabriel Barbosa of Santos has 15, six behind, and the pair on 11 — Carlos Vinícius of Grêmio and Kaio Jorge of Cruzeiro — need a collapse from the leader to enter the conversation.

The table adds context. Paranaense sit 4th on 53 points with a goal difference of +12, so Kevin Viveros's goals are not padding a mid-table campaign; they are carrying a side that is chasing the top two. Flamengo lead on 67, one point ahead of Palmeiras on 66, and neither of those clubs has a scorer inside the top three. Read that again. The two best teams in the division are winning without a twenty-goal forward.

That is the interesting part of this chart. Flamengo's Pedro has 16 in a title race, which is a fine return, but Kevin Viveros is doing more with less around him. Whether that holds over the closing stretch is the question.

Elsewhere the league returns on Saturday 24 October, with Internacional hosting Botafogo a day later. The most recent result in the competition was Cruzeiro beating Clube do Remo 1-0 on Friday 23 October.

For now the scoring race has one name at the front and a lot of distance behind it.