Premier League top scorers 2025/26: In-form Haaland extends early lead

Carlo Garganese

• 14 Sept 2025 18:40 BST
• 11 min read

Feature

Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland are going head-to-head once again in the 2025/26 Premier League Golden Boot race.

Liverpool forward Salah stormed to victory last season, claiming this award by netting 29 goals and helping the Reds to Premier League title glory, ending Manchester City’s run of success.

Salah has now been the top Premier League scorer on four occasions, meaning he shares the competition record with Arsenal great Thierry Henry.

Haaland, meanwhile, had triumphed in the previous two campaigns but was ultimately unable to match the feats achieved by Henry and Alan Shearer, who are two of the greatest strikers to have ever played in England’s top division, by winning a third consecutive scoring crown.

Man City striker Haaland raced out of the blocks in 2024/25 and still made the podium after netting 22 league goals, but injuries restricted him to 31 top-flight appearances and Salah’s relentless form ultimately proved too hot to handle.

The stakes are high in the battle to be top scorer this season. If Salah prevails, he will become the first-ever EPL player to win the Golden Boot five times.

If Haaland scores the most goals in the 2025/26 season, he will match Shearer and Harry Kane as a three-time winner and confirm his status as the competition’s leading number nine by making it three wins in four years.

Alexander Isak also has high hopes of topping the goalscoring charts in England, even though he missed the first three games of the campaign. Speculation over his future had dominated the pre-season period, with links to Liverpool finally resulting in a massive move to Anfield on deadline day.

READ MORE: European Golden Shoe 2025/26 Standings

Isak scored 23 times last season to ultimately finish above Haaland and take second place. He topped the 20-goal mark in two straight campaigns for Newcastle United prior to his Liverpool transfer.

Arsenal have brought in Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting CP in a major transfer, with the Golden Shoe contender expected to challenge for the top scorer title in his debut campaign in England. Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz are also hoping to impress for the Gunners.

Chelsea also started the season with some notable candidates after winning the Club World Cup. Cole Palmer consistently performs well in the Premier League scoring standings, while forwards Joao Pedro and Liam Delap were brought in by the Blues in significant moves.

READ MORE: Manchester United 2025/26 Top Scorers

Some exciting transfer signings made by Manchester United included Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, who were both among the Premier League’s top performers last season.

The Red Devils are desperate to reinvigorate their attack, and also struck a deal for Benjamin Sesko, who might end up as their leading Golden Boot contender after incumbent striker Rasmus Hojlund came into the campaign under significant pressure to deliver, before ultimately leaving Old Trafford.

While he was not among the top favourites in the pre-season betting odds, Tottenham forward Dominic Solanke may be a name to watch, but former Golden Boot winner Heung-min Son is not a candidate this season after he left Spurs to join LAFC in MLS.

READ MORE: Champions League 2025/26 Top Scorers

Ollie Watkins, Hugo Ekitike, Chris Wood, Cody Gakpo, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Yoane Wissa and Omar Marmoush may be other attacking players to watch out for in what looks likely to be a competitive top scorer contest.

The Premier League top scorers will be displayed on this page throughout the season. We will take an in-depth look at the latest standings for the players with the most EPL goals, with updates after every matchday.

2025/26 Premier League top scorers

Erling Haaland is first in the list of Premier League top scorers for the 2025/26 season.

His challengers in the early standings include Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres, as well as Liverpool stars Hugo Ekitike and Mohamed Salah.

Salah scored a stoppage-time winner from the penalty spot as the champions played away to newly promoted Burnley on Sunday, with Alexander Isak not featuring in the squad, meaning he will have to wait a bit longer before making his debut.

Later on the same day, Haaland's Manchester City took on Manchester United in a huge derby clash at the Etihad Stadium.

Haaland came into the match on a high after his heroics for Norway during the international break.

In his last Norway outing he incredibly scored five goals as his team thrashed Moldova 11-1 on Tuesday, having also struck against Finland in World Cup qualifying last week.

And Haaland's fine form continued in the derby, as he netted twice in a 3-0 home win for Man City, extending his advantage at the top of the scoring standings.

The new Premier League season got up and running when champions Liverpool recorded a dramatic 4-2 victory over Bournemouth at Anfield in the opening game, which took place on the evening of Friday August 15.

Salah made a strong start to his Golden Boot defence with a last-gasp goal in stoppage time, while Hugo Ekitike made his intentions clear by scoring the opening goal and adding an assist for Cody Gakpo.

But one of the early co-leaders after MD1 was Antoine Semenyo, who scored both goals in that game for Bournemouth as part of a fine individual performance. His second goal was a stunning solo effort, as he fired in a finish after carrying the ball from well inside his own half.

Richarlison joined Semenyo at the top of the early standings on Saturday of MD1 by netting two goals, including a spectacular scissor kick, in Spurs' 3-0 home win over Burnley.

And Haaland made a big early Golden Boot statement in the late game that day, scoring twice as Manchester City thrashed Wolves, a team he often fares well against, 4-0 at Molineux.

In Sunday's action on the opening weekend, Chris Wood got up and running. Fresh from scoring 20 times last season, he netted a lethal double as Nottingham Forest saw off Brentford in a 3-1 win.

After champions Liverpool were in the spotlight to begin MD1 and a bumper opening weekend of action provided plenty of further drama, we then had an even more entertaining MD2 group of fixtures.

Chelsea were looking to earn their first win of the campaign when they played away to West Ham in the Friday fixture.

Cole Palmer was not among the contenders bidding to impress as he was withdrawn from the starting line-up due to feeling an injury in the warm-up. But that did not stop the Blues from recording a rampant 5-1 victory, with Joao Pedro impressing by scoring a headed goal and adding two assists.

Man City v Spurs was a huge Saturday early fixture, with Haaland hoping to build on his fast start and increase his early lead before many of his rivals had played their second match.

However, the striker was kept out as Spurs recorded a surprise 2-0 win, with Brennan Johnson netting for the second straight game.

And by the Sunday there were seven players sharing the lead with two goals each. After being criticised for his debut performance against Man Utd, Gyokeres netted a much-needed double as Arsenal thrashed Leeds United 5-0.

Perhaps more surprising was right-back Jurrien Timber netting twice for the Gunners in a man-of-the-match display. He also provided the assist when Bukayo Saka was on target for the other Arsenal goal.

The headline match on Sunday of MD2 saw Man Utd held to a 1-1 draw away to Fulham. With United's strike in that match being an own goal, none of their players had yet got off the mark in EPL play.

Salah and Liverpool had to wait until Monday night before they played, but it was a highly attractive fixture as the champions took on Newcastle United, with the speculation around Isak's potential move to Anfield continuing to dominate the headlines going into the clash at St James' Park.

Liverpool ultimately won a thriller 3-2 with a winning goal deep into stoppage time. While Salah did not score, he set up the dramatic winner. Earlier in the second half, Ekitike had scored again to become the eighth joint leader going into the third round of games.

Matchday Three was headlined by Liverpool taking on Arsenal at Anfield in the flagship Sunday fixture, a match that saw Golden Boot contenders Salah and Gyokeres go head to head.

However, neither player was able to score as Liverpool won 1-0 courtesy of a superb Dominik Szoboszlai free-kick.

Earlier in the day, Haaland and Man City were looking to bounce back when they travelled to play Brighton.

Haaland did score his third goal of the season, but Man City fell to a dramatic 2-1 defeat as Brighton launched a second-half comeback.

As of the end of MD3, Norway star Haaland was the only player to have reached three goals, with a huge group of players behind him on two, and Salah a little off the early pace with just one.

The start of MD4 saw Gyokeres net again as Arsenal comfortably defeated Nottingham Forest, while Semenyo continued his fine start to the campaign as Bournemouth saw off Brighton, meaning both players joined Haaland on three goals ahead of the Manchester derby.

But Haaland's double means he sits two goals clear of Gyokeres and Semenyo going into MD5, and three ahead of Salah.

So Haaland has made an extremely fast start in the Golden Boot race, as he often does when it comes to the Premier League scoring standings.

Premier League Golden Boot: Previous Winners

Thierry Henry shares the record for the most Premier League Golden Boot wins, having been named the top scorer in the competition on four occasions for Arsenal.

Following his success last season, Liverpool star Mohamed Salah is now level with Henry on four Golden Boot wins.

Two of Salah's top scorer awards were shared, while his triumphs in 2017/18 and 2024/25 (his first and most recent respectively) were outright successes.

READ MORE: Premier League Assists Standings

The France and Egypt greats are two of only four players who have scored the most goals in the EPL across three or more seasons.

Alan Shearer won the Golden Boot three times, once with Newcastle and twice with Blackburn Rovers, while Harry Kane’s win in 2020/21 was also his third, all of them coming with Tottenham.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez are two of the biggest names to have won the award, scoring 31 goals in 2007/08 and 2013/14 respectively.

READ MORE: Most Assists In Europe 2025/26

It is Liverpool who have had the most Premier League Golden Boot winners as a team with eight, with Salah's triumph in topping the list of 2024/25 top scorers extending their advantage.

Arsenal are two behind on six wins as a team, while Man Utd and Tottenham have had five winners.

Chelsea are on four, with Man City level with them after Haaland gave the club a fourth win by finishing first in the list of 2023/24 Premier League top scorers.

The Premier League began from the 1992/93 season. Prior to that, Ian Wright was the last player to be the highest goalscorer in England when it was the old First Division.

Gary Lineker and Alan Smith were also winners in the 1990s before the league was rebranded.

Most goals in a Premier League season

Erling Haaland has the record for the most goals in a single Premier League season, having scored 36 times in just 35 matches during the 2022/23 campaign.

Previously, the record for most goals in an EPL campaign was shared by Alan Shearer (1994/95) and Andy Cole (1993/94).

Both players scored an astonishing 34 goals, though the season schedule was longer then – Shearer did it in 42 matches and Cole reached the total from 40 games.

Mohamed Salah came close to that record in 2017/18, scoring 32 times in 36 outings, producing what had been the best Premier League goalscoring season in this century until Haaland's spectacular arrival.

The Golden Boot winner with the best goals per game ratio in a season is also Haaland after his exploits in his record-setting season (1.03 goals per game).

Prior to that it was Kane after the England captain netted 29 times in just 30 games to win the 2016/17 scoring title, averaging 0.97 GPG.

Who are the Premier League top scorers of all time?

Alan Shearer is the highest goalscorer in Premier League history, having ended his career in 2006 with a magnificent 260 goals to his name in England’s top division.

Former Tottenham star Harry Kane (213) and Man Utd legend Wayne Rooney (208) are the only other players who have scored more than 200 EPL goals.

Andy Cole (187), Sergio Aguero (184), Frank Lampard (177) and Thierry Henry (175) are former Premier League players who sit near the top of the all-time list.

Before the 2025/26 season began, Robbie Fowler (163), Jermain Defoe (162) and Michael Owen (150) were also in an elite group of 11 players in EPL history who had scored 150 goals or more.

Prior to his transfer from Spurs to Bayern Munich in 2023, Kane was the highest-scoring active Premier League player and he had long been cited as one of the rare contenders who has a chance to rival Shearer’s record total.

But Kane's continued absence from English club football meant it was Salah, with 186 goals, who started this season as the highest scoring current EPL player.

Salah has been rising fast in the rankings over recent years, beginning this campaign sitting in fifth place having started the previous year sitting in 10th overall and surging up the standings by hitting 29 goals last season.

Going into this campaign, Salah had scored at least 18 goals in all eight of the Premier League seasons he had played with Liverpool. He sat just one goal behind Cole when the campaign began, with Kane and Rooney also realistically within reach if he has a similarly strong year in 2025/26.