Shearer, Henry, van Nistelrooy, Ronaldo – the English Premier League has been graced with some of the best goal scorers the game has seen, in what is dubbed by some as the most difficult league in the world.
In the previous 10 Premier League seasons, an average of 22.9 goals has earned the Golden Boot, a range of 19 to 31. This season, with 7/8 games to go, Robin van Persie has already amassed more goals than that average, managing a very credible 26 Premier League goals thus far.
What I wanted to know was if there was a pattern to how the goals from the Premier League top scorers over the past 10 seasons were scored. Furthermore, is there a correlation in the time the goals are scored and the area from which they originate?
Who they are…
Last 10 Premier League seasons – Top scorers
You can see that Cristiano Ronaldo’s 31 goals is the highlight of the past 10 Premier League seasons, just 3 short of the 34 goal record set by Andy Cole & Alan Shearer. Nicolas Anelka was top dog in a pretty barren season for goals in the 2008/09 season, finishing top scorer with 19 goals, just 1 better than the lowest goal scoring finish in Premier League history – the 1997/98 & 1998/99 seasons, 19 goals.
How they scored…
Last 10 season's top scorers – How they've scored (click to enlarge)
The graphic shows, quite clearly, the dominance of right footed to left footed players in the scoring stakes, with 187 out of 272 goals scored with the right foot. Robin van Persie is the only left footed player in the list and the one with the most left footed goals, albeit only 4 more than Didier Drogba from the 2009/10 season.
Thierry Henry is the right foot ‘king’. In his 3 top goal scorer seasons, 67 out of his 82 goals were scored via his right foot – only Cristiano Ronaldo has outdone the Frenchman over a season for right-footed goals.
Quite surprisingly, no top scoring player in the last 10 years has notched more than 5 headers of their overall total – Drogba & Ronaldo the leaders in that category and Henry showing his weakness aerially with just 2 headed goals from his 82 in 3 seasons; 2 seasons without a single header.
Next Page: At what time did they score goals? A goal time breakdown and pitch positions (click top right or bottom right).
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Categories: Arsenal (NN), Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea, EPL, EPL Index Featured Article, EPL Index Statistical Comparisons, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester Utd, Newcastle Utd, Norwich City, QPR, Stoke City, Sunderland, Swansea City, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, Wigan, Wolves
Tags: AFC, AFC Stats, Arsenal Stats, CFC, CFC Stats, Chelsea Stats, EPL, EPL Legends, EPL Top Scorers, Man Utd Stats, MUFC, MUFC Stats, Premier League Top Scorers
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Drogba is the best premeir top scorer
Would have been interesting to see the top scorers previous to the last 10 years also and see if there were any trends with those values.
Cracking article though!
didier drogba still the best premier league scorer after thiery henry in the last ten years.take it or leave it…