Can ROBIN VAN PERSIE JOIN THIS LIST.
10th – Ian Wright, 113 goals
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The man who held Arsenals Scoring record before one Thierry Henry came along.
He won the title with Arsenal in 97/98, his final season for the team, which was his lowest scoring season for the gunners, with only 10 league goals.He had15,23,18,15,23 and 10 on his trophy year. He spent one more season in the top flight , with West Ham, scoring 9 goals for the club before he started zigzagging between clubs until his retirement after the 99/00 season. His best finish in the scoring charts was 2nd in the 96/97 season, 2 goals shy of Shearer.
9th – Dwight Yorke, 123 goals (Still Active)
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The 37 year old Trinidad & Tobago Striker still treads the EPL waters, although not as often as before(Only 3 appearances for Sunderland this season so far). Played for Villa, Man U, Blackburn, Birmingham City and currently with Sunderland, but will mostly be remembered for his partnership with Andrew Cole, leading the red devils in 98/99 to a memorable treble. Yorke had only 5 seasons in which he scored 10+ out of his 14 EPL seasons so far but he’s a long distance runner I guess. His best came in 99/00, leading Man U to another League title with 20 goals, finishing 3rd behind Kevin Phillips and Alan Shearer. In 98/99 he scored 18, but it was enough for 3-way joined top scorer title along Owen and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
8th – Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, 127 goals
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Jerrel “Jimmy Floyd” Hasselbaink had a tough time staying in one place for long except for his Chelsea time(4 years… wow!!) but the goals came none the less. 2 seasons for Leeds, 4 for the Blues, 2 for Boro and one forgettable season with Charlton were enough for the Suriname born Dutchman to put his name in history books. He never won the league title with any of his teams, but he did win the scoring title twice. In 98/99 he finished 1st in a 3-way win alongside Michael Owen and Dwight Yorke, with 18. In 00/01 he won it with no competition, 23 goals to his tally. He had 23 the next season as well, but it was enough for 2nd behind Thierry Henry.
7th – Michael Owen, 144 goals (Still active)
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Only 29, if that thing called injuries wasn’t a term so familiar to the baby face striker, Owen would probably be number 2 on this list right now, heading strong towards number one. But Fantasy aside, Owen, injured or not, scored goals. 144 in 278 games is not too shabby. Playing for Liverpool and Currently Newcastle, he has never scored less than 11 goals when playing more than 20 games a season. Has 8 season of 10+ goals, with his best coming in 01/02 and 02/03, scoring 19. In 97/98 and 98/99 he finished joint top scorer, with 18 goals in each season. Can he bounce back from his recent injury to improve his place in the stat sheets of history? We hope so.
6th – Teddy Sheringham, 147 goals
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An unlikely candidate to become one of the top EPL scorers of all time if you take a glance at his career stats – Starting at Millwall, playing at Aldershot and even Swedish side Djurgarden doesn’t usually earn you a shot at glory. But Teddy moved on to better and bigger, and by moving to Nott. Forest and then Tottenham, he started his top flight and Premier League Career. Even though his first goal came for Forest, and the bulk of goals came at White Heart Lane, he’ll be remembered, like Dwight Yorke and Andrew Cole, for that 98/99 team that won the legendary treble. He’s won 3 Championships, all with United but his best scoring year came in the EPL inaugural year, when Teddy scored 22 goals, earning him the golden boot.
5th – Les Ferdinand, 149 goals
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Like Sheringham, Leslie(!!!!) “Les” Ferdinand had a weird foreign spell, one season for Turkish Club Beskitas before returning to the English game, better than ever , and boy was he. He played for Q.P.R in that 92/93 season, and in 3 Premier League seasons with them had 20,16 and 24 goals each. He scored 41 goals in the next 2 seasons for Newcastle, missing out on a championship each time. Then came Tottenham, which is synonymous for disappointment, having trouble regaining his early 90′s scoring form, but injuries and age did their bit. He had a bit of a revival with Leicester City during 03/04, scoring 12 goals, but that was the swan song for Les. He holds a remarkable record of being the first player to score a Premier League goal for 6 different clubs(Q.P.R, Newcastle, Spurs, West Ham, Leicester and Bolton). His best season was in 95/96, when he netted 25, finishing 3rd to Shearer and Fowler.
4th – Robbie Fowler, 163 goals (Still Active)
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Robbie started out with a bang, scoring 83 goals in his first 4 seasons as a pro, all for Liverpool of course, but than slowly faded when injuries started racking up on his skillful legs. Still Active, recently signing with Australian side North Queensland Fury, but it’ll be a safe bet to say he won’t be scoring any more Premiership goals. He played and scored some for Leeds and Man City where he reunited with Steve McManaman, but Fowler will always be remembered as a Liverpool man, although he was an Everton fan as a child(They forgive those who score). His best came during the 95/96 season, when the leading man of the “spice-boys” scored 28 goals, finishing second to Alan Shearer’s 31.
3rd – Thierry Henry, 174 goals (Still Active)
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If Mourinho is the special one, than Henry is the Elegant one. Arsene Wenger got him out of his Juventus hell, and English football was never the same. A wonderful Arsenal side which one 2 championships and reached one Champions League Final was led by Henry, who scored and scored and scored relentlessly for the Gunners. 174 goals in 254 games, never going below 10 goals a season. Henry is currently playing for Barcelona and has lost a step or two the past 2-3 years, but can still get those goals(12 so far this season) maybe hasn’t said his final word regarding English Football. He was the Premiership’s top scorer 4 times, in 01/02(24 goals), and 3 straight times between 2003 to 2006, with 30, 25 and 27, and will eventually be remembered as one of the best forwards and players of this decade.
2nd – Andrew Cole, 187 goals
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Andy later to be known as Andrew Cole took his time before bursting on to the National scene, but he made a very nice impression. Scoring 34 goals in 40 during the 93/94 season for Newcastle brought the attention of the football world, and Alex Ferguson who purchased him midway through the 94/95 season. Despite scoring 5 goals in one game that year(poor Ipswich),still a record, and generally being an efficient striker Cole never struck a chord with United fans… Maybe his tendency to miss was a key factor in that. But he did get some… although he never got close to 34, he had 6 more seasons of 10+ goals for various Premiership clubs, including Man U, Blackburn, Fulham, Man City and Pompy. He won 5 league titles with United and was top scorer of the league once, but will probably be forgotten in the pages of history, due to him being good and not exceptional as most expected of him after his transfer to Man U.
1st – Alan Shearer, 260 goals
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Well… for Shearer like for all of the guys before him the numbers speak for themselves. But they do that much more strongly for Alan. An Icon at both Blackburn and Newcastle, his 260 seems to be out of reach for what seems to be quite a long time.Scored an amazing 112 in 138 for rovers in 4 seasons, including 34 in that historic championship season. His move to Newcastle made him for a short while the most expensive player in the world, and while not bringing the league title to St. James’ park, he managed to score 148 goals in 303 matches for the Jordies. He won the scoring title in 94/95, 95/96 and 97. He has 3 seasons with 30+ goals, 7 of 20+ and 11 of 10+. He wasn’t fast or too quick, but had a cannon for a leg and was very effective in the air(his elbows helped) and his “Player of the decade” award, handed to him on the marking of the EPL first 10 years pretty much says it all about how great Shearer was to his teams and to English football in general.
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