Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, Thierry Henry: The most goals scored in a Premier League season

More often than not, the club that scores the most goals in a Premier League season ends up hoisting the trophy aloft, but the individual who scores the most goals will not always achieve the ultimate team prize.

While collective glory is the number one priority, seasoned marksmen and new arrivals alike may also have one eye on the glistening Golden Boot, which is currently safely tucked away inside the walls of Mohamed Salah's home.

The Liverpool legend bagged 29 strikes en route to his fourth Premier League top scorer prize - two of which were shared - but his 2024-25 haul remarkably does not earn him a spot on the all-time list of highest scoring Premier League seasons.

Here, Sports Mole counts down the top 10 most goals in an English top-flight campaign since 1992.

10. Thierry Henry (30 goals | 2003-04 | Arsenal) and Harry Kane (30 goals | 2017-18 | Tottenham Hotspur)

There have been five instances of players scoring 30 goals in a Premier League season, but in keeping with the essence of a top 10 - or 11 - we have used a tie-breaker to whittle down those fab five into a terrific three - goals per match.

Robin van Persie in 2011-12 and Harry Kane in 2022-23 both netted 30 times at an average of 0.79 strikes per game, while Thierry Henry in 2003-04 and Kane himself in 2017-18 did so with a rate of 0.81 efforts per match.

As a result, the Englishman and the Frenchman kick off our list of the most goals in a Premier League season, and it was only fitting that Henry's highest-scoring campaign ended with a Golden Boot and a golden top-flight trophy with Arsenal's Invincibles.

In contrast, Kane experienced an all-too familiar tale at Tottenham in 2017-18; racking up the individual accolades but missing out on the elusive team honour that he would never win in a lilywhite shirt.

=. Kevin Phillips (30 goals | 1999-00 | Sunderland)

The third member of the 30-goal club to make the list, Kevin Phillips struck an average of 0.83 goals per match while playing for Sunderland in 1999-00, one of two reasons why he merits his own category.

A popular pub quiz question, Phillips was also the first-ever Englishman to win the European Golden Shoe, and he was the only man from his nation to hold the accolade until Kane followed suit for Bayern Munich in 2023-24.

Phillips netted over 50% of the Black Cats' 57 Premier League goals that year, as Sunderland wound up in seventh place and only missed out on an Intertoto Cup place by virtue of an inferior goal difference to Aston Villa.

8. Alan Shearer (31 goals | 1993-94 | Blackburn Rovers)

Well, it was a case of when rather than if this man would make an appearance was it not?

Alan Shearer had struck a respectable 16 goals in his first Premier League season with Blackburn Rovers, but by the end of the 1993-94 campaign, he had almost doubled that number.

Shearer's staggering 31 goals propelled Rovers to a second-placed finish that year, and he coincidentally also took the silver medal in the Golden Boot race - more on that a bit further down.

=. Alan Shearer (31 goals | 1995-96 | Blackburn Rovers)

Either side of achieving Premier League stardom with Blackburn in the historic 1994-95 Premier League season, Shearer replicated his 31-goal haul from the 1993-94 term in 1995-96, his last year in a Rovers kit.

While the Premier League's all-time record scorer needed 40 games to hit 31 goals in 1993-94, he registered the same total in 35 matches two years later, while the rest of the Blackburn squad managed 30 combined.

Shearer beat Robbie Fowler to the Golden Boot by three goals, but Rovers' title defence ended in a disheartening seventh-placed finish, and the Newcastle-born marksman soon jumped ship for his hometown club.

=. Cristiano Ronaldo (31 goals | 2007-08 | Manchester United)

Debates rage over whether Cristiano Ronaldo can be classed as one of the all-time Premier League legends, having truly shot up into the football stratosphere during his time at Real Madrid.

However, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner was the greatest in the land in 2007-08, bagging 31 goals en route to lifting the title with Manchester United, comfortably beating 24-goal pair Emmanuel Adebayor and Fernando Torres to the Golden Boot.

Replays of his exquisite free kick against Portsmouth may still be playing in David James's nightmares, and the Portuguese will always have those fond Old Trafford memories to look back on before things turned sour under Erik ten Hag in 2022.

=. Luis Suarez (31 goals | 2013-14 | Liverpool)

Luis Suarez can score 31 goals in a single Premier League season, but the Uruguayan's most memorable moment from the 2013-14 campaign may just be his waterworks on the Selhurst Park pitch.

The former Liverpool striker was ostensibly propelling the Reds to their first-ever title just over a decade ago, but one 3-3 draw against Crystal Palace later, and his sensational goal haul was rendered largely inconsequential in a Premier League title sense.

Nevertheless, Suarez took home some individual consolation prizes in the shape of the PFA Player of the Year, the FWA Player of the Year and the Premier League Player of the Season before heading to Barcelona.

4. Mohamed Salah (32 goals | 2017-18 | Liverpool)

Sticking with the theme of Liverpool attackers winning the Golden Boot without winning the Premier League title, Mohamed Salah unexpectedly took the top division by storm following his return from Roma in 2017.

Following a forgettable spell at Chelsea, the electrifying Egyptian had reignited his career in Serie A, but few could have foreseen the magnificent 32-goal season that would enter the history books.

Salah's debut campaign at Anfield saw the winger break the record for the most goals in a 38-game Premier League season, although a certain Scandinavian sensation has since surpassed him in that regard.

3. Andy Cole (34 goals | 1993-94 | Newcastle United)

Remember when we said Shearer's 31 goals in 1993-94 were not enough for the Golden Boot? That is because the man pictured above incredibly netted three more strikes than his compatriot that year.

Making nets ripple for fun in a Newcastle kit was Cole's job before it was Shearer's, as the then-22-year-old bagged 34 goals in his first-ever season in the Premier League, not to mention registering 13 assists to boot.

Cole still holds the joint record for the most goals and assists in a Premier League campaign (38-game or 42-game), but he strikingly failed to make that year's PFA Team of the Year selection; Shearer, Peter Beardsley and Eric Cantona were all chosen ahead of him in attack.

=. Alan Shearer (34 goals | 1994-95 | Blackburn Rovers)

The earliest days of the Premier League saw a fierce battle for striker supremacy between Cole and Shearer, the latter of whom emulated his countryman with his own 34-goal tally in 1994-95.

More pertinently, Shearer's exceptional record just over three decades ago launched Blackburn to their first-ever Premier League title, as the Geordie formed a devastating double act with Chris Sutton up top.

Also copying Cole's record of 13 assists, the two Englishmen and Salah are sharing the throne for the most individual goal contributions in a Premier League season, although the latter is the only one to register an astounding 47 in a 38-game campaign.

1. Erling Haaland (36 goals | 2022-23 | Manchester City)

A fantasy football manager's dream at the beginning of the 2022-23 season, Erling Haaland certainly started as he meant to continue upon his arrival at Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund, and continue he did.

By the ninth gameweek of his debut Premier League campaign, the scintillating Scandinavian already had three hat-tricks to his name - in three straight home games no less - and he took home a further match ball en route to scoring an unparalleled 36 goals in just 35 matches.

Haaland has arguably become a victim of his own success in recent times, but 49 goals across the last two Premier League seasons is still nothing to be scoffed at, and with a contract at the Etihad until 2034, he has no doubt set his sight's on Shearer's all-time high of 260.