When it comes to sporting glory, there are very few accolades that can top being one of the Premier League’s best goalscorers. Racking up spectacular finish after spectacular finish wins a player not only the adulation of their team’s fans, but also of their teammates, and so winning the honour of being one of the Premier League’s top goalscorers is something that every striker wants to achieve.
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Of course, not every player can reach these lofty heights; even some of the best forwards of all time don’t enter into the hallowed halls of the top goalscorers. Let’s take a look at the Premier League’s highest-scoring players between 1992 and 2023.
1. Erling Haaland
(2022-23 season, 36 goals)
At the close of the 2022-23 season, it was declared that Manchester City’s Erling Haaland had managed to achieve a rare feat; he’d become the Premier League’s top goalscorer of all time. Haaland managed to score a staggering 36 goals across the season, with City sitting comfortably atop the league table and Arsenal coming in second. Haaland’s achievement is impressive, and it will surely go down in the history books – unless he manages to top it himself next season!
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2. Andy Cole and Alan Shearer
(1993-94 and 1994-95 season, 34 goals)
In second place, it’s a tie between two of the most iconic and beloved English strikers of all time: Andy Cole and Alan Shearer. In the 1993-94 season, Cole racked up 34 goals for Newcastle United, and in the following season, Shearer took the crown for his beloved Blackburn Rovers. Interestingly enough, Cole’s achievement actually kept Shearer off the top spot for the 93-94 season as well!
3. Mohamed Salah
(2017-18 season, 32 goals)
Mo Salah is inarguably one of Liverpool’s greatest goalscorers, and in the 2017-18 season, he led his team to glory with a record-breaking 32-goal run. While it’s true that Salah’s overall goal count isn’t the highest in the Premier League, he is the first player in the League’s entire history to score that number across a 38-game campaign, so he’s earned his place among the pantheon of Premier League strikers.
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4. Alan Shearer, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Luis Suarez
(1995-96, 2007-08, and 2013-14 seasons, 31 goals)
Shearer’s name appears yet again as one of the League’s top goalscorers, this time in the 1995-96 season. During this time, Shearer was in his prime, still playing for Blackburn Rovers and cementing his eventual reputation as the Premier League’s overall top goalscorer (a record he still holds to this day). Ronaldo and Suarez also achieved this impressive figure during their respective 2007-08 and 2013-14 seasons, playing for Manchester United and Liverpool, respectively.
5. Kevin Phillips, Thierry Henry, Robin Van Persie, and Harry Kane
(1999-00, 2003-04, 2011-12, 2017-18, and 2022-23 seasons, 30 goals)
Here, Harry Kane’s ascendancy truly begins. The star English striker is currently sitting in second place in the overall League goalscorer table at time of writing, and he’s managed to score 30 goals in two separate seasons several years apart, which is impressive. Of course, we shouldn’t diminish the historic achievements of the French star Thierry Henry or the Dutch legend Robin Van Persie as well, nor the efforts of underrated English forward Kevin Phillips.
6. Didier Drogba and Harry Kane
(2009-10 and 2016-17 seasons, 29 goals)
Surprisingly enough given his excellent reputation, Ivorian legend Didier Drogba only tops the Premier League goalscoring table once across his career, but it was an impressive performance indeed. Drogba took home the top scorer prize in the 2009-10 season, scoring 29 goals, with Wayne Rooney bringing up second place at 26. 29 is also the total achieved by Harry Kane in the 2016-17 season, often considered one of his best.
7. Robbie Fowler
(1995-96 season, 28 goals)
It’s pure bad luck for Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler that he managed to achieve an incredibly impressive 28-goal run during the 1995-96 season. Why bad luck? Well, this is also the season during which Alan Shearer showed his dominance, so Fowler never stood a chance against Shearer’s meteoric rise. Still, Fowler scored what some consider to be the greatest Premier League goal of all time in 1996, so he’s got that to cherish.
8. Thierry Henry and Wayne Rooney,
(2005-06 and 2011-12 seasons, 27 goals)
Henry’s name appears once again on this list as he led Arsenal to another (entirely expected, but still impressive) top five finish in the 2005-06 season. His 27-goal run arguably carried the team almost entirely on its own, and it was matched again later in the Premier League by Wayne Rooney, who scored 27 goals in the 2011-12 season (bettered only by the aforementioned Robin Van Persie, which Rooney likely won’t be too sour about).
9. Wayne Rooney, Robin Van Persie, and Sergio Agüero
(2009-10, 2012-13, and 2014-15 seasons, 26 goals)
This is a busy field indeed. Rooney’s 2009-10 season was golden, giving England’s biggest hope a 26-goal total for that run, and it was later matched by Robin Van Persie (who denied Rooney his top goalscorer achievement in the previous season) in 2012-13 and Sergio Agüero in 2014-15. Don’t let the higher totals of previous generations fool you; 26 goals is still a very impressive run indeed.
10. Many players, many seasons, 25 goals
Let’s end with a quick rundown of the players who managed to score 25 goals in their respective seasons, as it’s a pretty exhaustive list. Matt Le Tissier and Chris Sutton hit this total for Southampton and Norwich respectively in the 1993-94 season, followed by Robbie Fowler for Liverpool in 1994-95. Les Ferdinand and Alan Shearer scored 25 goals in the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons, then Ruud van Nistelrooy and Thierry Henry hit this total in 2002-03 and 2004-05. Finally, Harry Kane topped the table in 2015-16 with 25 goals, and Romelu Lukaku took 25 home for Everton in 2016-17 (beaten only by Kane himself with 29!).
