Premier League top scorers 2025/26: Gyokeres sends message to Haaland

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 25 Aug 2025 19:08 BST
• 6 min read

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Viktor Gyokeres sent a message to Erling Haaland with two goals for Arsenal on matchday two of the Premier League.

Gyokeres was heavily criticised on matchday one during Arsenal's 1-0 win at Manchester United as he made little impact.

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Viktor Gyökeres

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READ MORE: Premier League top scorers 2025/26: The full standings in the EPL Golden Boot race

With Erling Haaland scoring twice for City in their opening Premier League game, it was suggested by some fans and critics that Gyokeres may find the step up from Portuguese to English football a big challenge.

However, Gyokeres sent an immediate message on matchday two that he will be a very real challenger to Haaland for the Premier League Golden Boot by scoring twice for Arsenal in their 5-0 thrashing of Leeds.

This meant that Gyokeres caught Haaland - who failed to score in City's 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham - a the top of the Golden Boot standings.

2025/26 Premier League top scorers

There are actually seven players at the top of the Premier League top scorer standings. The other five players are Gyokeres' Arsenal teammate Jurrien Timber - who scored twice against Leeds, Antoine Semenyo of Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood and Tottenham duo Richarlison and Brennan Johnson.

Johnson broke the deadlock for Spurs in that stunning win at the Etihad against City.

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.