Premier League top scorers 2025/26: Gyokeres given a rude awakening by Haaland

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 19 Aug 2025 08:38 BST
• 7 min read

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Viktor Gyokeres was given a rude awakening in the 2025/26 Premier League Golden Boot race on the first weekend of the new EPL season.

Much is expected of Gyokeres this season after his €73.5 million move to Arsenal from Sporting Lisbon.

Current ETV

Viktor Gyökeres

F (C)

Arsenal

Viktor Gyökeres

F (C)

Arsenal

€79.9M

ETV Range

€72M - €87.9M

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

Gyokeres plundered home an incredible 54 goals in all competitions last season for Sporting and is expected to challenge for the Golden Boot in England.

However, he endured a quiet opening on matchday one as Arsenal beat Man Utd 1-0 at Old Trafford.

READ MORE: European Golden Shoe 2025/26 Standings

Gyokeres disappoints against Arsenal

Gyokeres was well shackled by Matthijs de Ligt as he hit a blank and rarely threatened scoring.

Meanwhile, the favourite for the Premier League Golden Boot, Erling Haaland, demonstrated to Gyokeres the levels he will have to reach as he steps up from Portuguese to English football.

Haaland, who was EPL top scorer in 2022/23 and 2023/24, scored twice as Manchester City thrashed Wolves, a team he often fares well against, 4-0 at Molineux.

2025/26 Premier League top scorers

Haaland is joint top-scorer in the standings with three other players after matchday one.

Antoine Semenyo scored both goals for Bournemouth in their 4-2 defeat to Liverpool. 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 by netting two goals, including a spectacular scissor kick, in Spurs' 3-0 home win over Burnley.

And Chris Wood became the fourth Premier League player on two goals with a lethal double as Nottingham Forest saw off Brentford in a 3-1 win.

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

Chelsea started the season with some notable candidates for the Golden Boot but the likes of Cole Palmer, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap all hit blanks in the 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace.

READ MORE: Manchester United 2025/26 Top Scorers

Manchester United trio Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo all failed to score as well in that 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.

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.