Darren Bent’s brace against Norwich on Saturday took his Premier League career goal tally to 96, he’s just four short of joining the Ton Up Club.

It’s a pretty exclusive club with former Villans Dwight Yorke and Dion Dublin, plus current Villan Emile Heskey, among its 20 members.

Bent’s definitely got his eye on getting past the doorman, he told the official site:

I’ve still got a few things I’d like to achieve, like 100 Premier League goals. I’m only four off it. Hopefully it’s not too far away.

Not too many people have done that and it is something I’ve dreamt about since I stepped into the top-flight with Charlton.

That was an actual goal, to get into that 100 Premier League club because I’ve seen some of the best strikers in the world get into it.

The Challenge

Bent has scored his 96 goals from 217 appearances; a goal every 2.26 games. Unsurprisingly, he’s become more prolific with age, since 2009/10 he’s scored 46 goals in 84 appearances; one goal every 1.83 games.

So far this season, he’s got five from ten games.

So here’s the challenge to Darren; he needs four goals to reach 100, he scores roughly every two games, there just happens to be eight games left in 2011:

Can Darren Bent get his ton before the end of the year?

It won’t be easy, the final eight opponents of 2011 are Tottenham (A), Swansea (A), Man Utd (H), Bolton (A), Liverpool (H), Arsenal (H), Stoke (A) and Chelsea (A).

Incidentally, Bent’s got some competition to be the 21st member of the Premiership Ton Up Club; Didier Drogba also has 96 goals, but with just one from seven appearance so far this season, surely Bent would be favourite to get there first.

What do you think, can he do it?