Scoring goals is one of the hardest things in football, but it is also one of the most important.
At the end of the day, goals win games, and finding the back of the net in the Premier League is particularly difficult given strikers are often up against some of the best defenders in the world.
Over the years there have been some brilliant centre-forwards in the English top flight, from Alan Shearer and Didier Drogba to Luis Suarez and Robin van Persie.
Today, the Premier League is blessed with arguably the best goalscorer in the world in Erling Haaland, but the 2025/26 season also produced some outstanding performances from strikers across the division.
In this article, TOP SOCCER BLOG brings you the top 10 best strikers in the Premier League right now, updated for 2026, counting down from 10 to 1.
Top 10 Best Strikers In The Premier League (2026)
Here are the ranking for the top strikers in the EPL right now:
10. Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Leeds United)
Nobody had Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s resurgence on their bingo cards in 2025/26.
Having departed Everton under a cloud of injury woes, the England international found excellent form at Leeds United under Daniel Farke, netting seven Premier League goals in six appearances during November and December in a purple patch that put his name firmly back in the national conversation.
He is one of the most dangerous aerial threats among the best strikers in the Premier League when fully fit, using his imposing frame to hold the ball up and dominate centre-backs in the air.
At 28 years old, Calvert-Lewin has proven that he is far from finished and remains one of the more reliable old-fashioned centre-forwards in English football.
9. Richarlison (Tottenham Hotspur)
Richarlison is one of those Premier League strikers who makes life very uncomfortable for defenders through sheer energy, physicality, and relentless work rate.
The Brazilian averaged 0.51 goals per 90 minutes in the Premier League in 2025/26, and his non-penalty post-shot xG of 0.46 per 90 confirmed he was also improving the quality of his attempts throughout the campaign.
He chases every lost cause, holds the ball up effectively under pressure, and combines well with teammates in tight spaces, making him a constant goal threat for Tottenham even in games where the team as a whole is struggling.
His commitment to both attacking and defensive duties makes him one of the most complete forwards in the division and one of the hardest-working strikers in world football.
8. Jean-Philippe Mateta (Crystal Palace)
Jean-Philippe Mateta is the man Crystal Palace have built their entire attack around, and the 28-year-old Frenchman has delivered in spades.
The 6ft 4in centre-forward finished the 2025/26 Premier League season as Crystal Palace’s top league scorer with 12 goals from 23 starts, combining his imposing physical frame with sharp movement inside the box and clinical right-footed finishing.
Mateta is a throwback centre-forward who loves a physical battle, and his hold-up play and link-up work with teammates make him genuinely difficult to deal with over 90 minutes.
He also scored the winning goal in Crystal Palace’s 2025/26 UEFA Conference League final victory, cementing his status as the most important player in Crystal Palace’s trophy-winning 2025/26 season under Oliver Glasner, who has since left to become Nottingham Forest’s new head coach, and one of the best Premier League strikers around right now.
7. Eli Junior Kroupi (AFC Bournemouth)
Nobody expected a 19-year-old arriving from Ligue 2 to light up the Premier League the way Junior Kroupi did in 2025/26.
Born in Lorient on June 23, 2006, Kroupi scored 13 Premier League goals in just 1,683 minutes of action, starting only 21 of his 33 appearances, a return that made him the Premier League’s joint ninth-highest scorer in the entire division.
His father Eli Kroupi played professionally across France for clubs including Rennes, Nancy, and Lorient, and Junior inherited every bit of that footballing instinct, combining blistering pace with a clinical eye for goal and a natural ability to find space between defenders that looks extraordinary for a teenager making his top-flight debut.
He was crowned Ligue 2 Player of the Season at Lorient in 2024/25 and was compared to both Mbappé and Aguero by Premier League analysts after his October purple patch that announced him to English football.
He is one of the most exciting young strikers in world football and barely getting started.
6. Hugo Ekitike (Liverpool)
Hugo Ekitike’s debut Premier League season at Liverpool was one of the most promising and most heartbreaking stories of the 2025/26 campaign.
The French forward arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt for £79 million in July 2025 and immediately made an impression at Anfield, finishing as Liverpool’s top scorer across all competitions with 17 goals despite his season being cut short by a devastating injury.
On April 15, 2026, Ekitike ruptured his Achilles tendon during the first half of Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield, collapsing to the turf and leaving the pitch on a stretcher.
Liverpool confirmed a full Achilles rupture the following day, ending his season with six games remaining and ruling him out of the 2026 World Cup with France.
Despite the injury, his 11 Premier League goals from 28 games and his chemistry with Florian Wirtz made him one of the most exciting strikers in the PL before his season was cruelly ended.
5. Joao Pedro (Chelsea)
Joao Pedro is the best striker at Chelsea and finished the 2025/26 season as the club’s top scorer with 15 Premier League goals and 20 goals across all competitions from 35 appearances, averaging 0.51 goals per 90 minutes with a career penalty conversion rate of 95%.
He missed out on Brazil’s 2026 World Cup squad despite being on the radar throughout the cycle, but arrived at pre-season under new manager Xabi Alonso in outstanding condition and used that disappointment as motivation.
Pedro topped Chelsea’s pre-season scoring charts with 7 goals across all friendlies, including a hat-trick and an assist in the opening pre-season game against Western Sydney Wanderers.
He then carried that form directly into the 2026/27 Premier League season, scoring in Chelsea’s Monday night opener away at Fulham on August 24, setting up a barnstorming 3-2 West London derby win in Xabi Alonso’s first Premier League game in charge, with Cole Palmer and new signing Morgan Rogers also on the scoresheet.
4. Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal)
Viktor Gyokeres had his critics during his debut Premier League season at Arsenal in 2025/26.
Coming off the back of a legendary campaign at Sporting CP where he scored 43 goals in all competitions, the Swedish international had to adapt to a very different system and a more physical league, and not every fan was immediately satisfied with the transition.
But the numbers are hard to argue with.
Gyokeres averaged 0.57 goals per 90 minutes in the Premier League, posted a conversion rate of 25.45% that placed him in the 80th to 95th percentile among all Premier League strikers, and played a key role in Arsenal winning their first Premier League title in over two decades.
3. Alexander Isak (Liverpool)
Alexander Isak was worth every penny of the British record £125 million Liverpool paid to sign him from Newcastle in the summer of 2025.
The Swedish international is one of the most complete centre-forwards in the Premier League right now, combining exceptional pace, elegant technique, and clinical finishing with the intelligent movement and pressing work rate that Arne Slot demands from his attackers.
His first touch, his ability to receive the ball with his back to goal and spin in tight spaces, and his composure in one-on-one situations are all elite qualities that make him a nightmare for any Premier League defence to handle.
He is among the most gifted strikers in world football and a player who will be challenging for the top of these Premier League striker rankings for the next decade.
2. Igor Thiago (Brentford)
If there was one player who shocked the Premier League in 2025/26 it was Igor Thiago.
Brentford lost Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo in the summer of 2025, and few believed the Bees had the resources to replace them, but the Brazilian forward had other ideas entirely.
Thiago scored 22 Premier League goals to finish second only to Haaland in the division’s Golden Boot race and earn himself a place in Brazil’s 2026 World Cup squad, where he went on to represent the Selecao on football’s biggest stage.
His goals came from everywhere: headers, volleys, tap-ins, and long-range strikes, and his combination of relentless energy, intelligent positioning, and ruthless finishing made him the most unexpected success story among Premier League strikers this season.
He is now firmly established as one of the best strikers in the world and already attracting interest from Europe’s biggest clubs heading into the summer of 2026.
1. Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
What else is there to say about Erling Haaland that has not already been said?
The Manchester City and Norway striker finished the 2025/26 Premier League season as the division’s top scorer with 27 goals, winning the Golden Boot for the third time in his four seasons in England and confirming his status as the best striker in the Premier League and one of the greatest goalscorers the sport has ever produced.
His 27 goals came from 35 Premier League appearances at 0.82 goals per 90 minutes, with 57 shots on target from 126 total shots and a shooting accuracy of 45.24%, numbers that place him in a category entirely his own among Premier League strikers.
Haaland is a unique force of nature, a 6ft 4in centre-forward who combines the athletic profile of a world-class sportsman with the technical quality and finishing instinct of a player shaped by one of Europe’s finest football systems.
At the 2026 World Cup in North America he scored 7 goals in 360 minutes of action, helping Norway reach the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time in their history with a conversion rate of 39% from 18 shots, the best at the tournament among any player with 15 or more shots since Gary Lineker in 1986.
At just 25 years old and with a contract at the Etihad keeping him in Manchester until 2034, Haaland is only at the beginning of what will be one of the greatest goalscoring careers in the history of football.
He is the best striker in the Premier League by a very wide margin, and it is not particularly close.
