Golden Boot glory for Salah is no guarantee of Premier League triumph for Liverpool

Paul Okey
11 April 2022

Mohamed Salah leads the goalscoring charts with 20 but you have to go back a good few seasons for the last time the champions provided the Golden Boot winner.

Mo Salah is well clear in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot despite another blank against Manchester City but there's bad news for Liverpool fans - you have to go back to 2013 for the last time the top-flight's leading scorer played for the champions.

The 2012/13 season saw Robin Van Persie top-score with 26 goals as Manchester United romped to the Premier League title, finishing 11 points clear of second-placed Manchester City.

In fact, in the 29 seasons since the Premier League came into being in 1992, only eight times have the title winners also provided the division's leading goalscorers.

Alan Shearer's 34 goals fired Blackburn to the title in 1994/95 but despite topping the charts again the following season, this time with 31, the Ewood Park club could only finish seventh. Manchester United were the title winners that season, but their top scorer, Eric Cantona, only notched 14 times.

We had to wait until 2001/02 the next time a striker propelled his side to the title and himself to the top goalscorer accolade. Then it was Thierry Henry, whose 24 goals earned Arsenal the prize.

Henry actually kicked off a run of three successive years in which the league's top scorer played for the title winners. Ruud van Nistelrooy's 25 goals came as Manchester United claimed the title in 2003 before Arsenal returned to the summit the following season on the back of 30 goals from Henry.

Henry again topped the charts in the following two campaigns, but Arsenal could only finish second and fourth, with the goals of midfielder Frank Lampard (13 and 16) helping Chelsea to successive titles under Jose Mourinho.

Didier Drogba found his shooting boots the following season to top the goalscoring charts with 20, but it wasn't enough to earn the Blues a third successive Premier League trophy, with Manchester United leaping back to the summit to claim their ninth title in 15 years.

Cristiano Ronaldo was United's leading scorer that season with 18 and again led the way for the Red Devils the following season, bagging 31 as they retained their crown.

Drogba's goals did go hand in hand with the title in 2010 and the following year Manchester United striker Dmitri Berbatov's 20 goals put him joint top of the charts with Manchester City's Carlos Tevez. It was the red half of Manchester who were celebrating the title, though.

However, since Van Persie in 2013, a succession of strikers have bagged the most goals in the division without their clubs being able to translate that into championship-winning form.

And in 2018/19 two Liverpool players - Salah and Sadio Mane - headed the scoring charts alongside Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the Reds still didn't win the title. Something that could repeat itself in 2021/22 with Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane the division's third and fourth top goalscorers, respectively.

How have the Premier League's leading scorers fared?

	Top scorer (team)	Goals	Finish	Champions
92/93	Teddy Sheringham (Forest/Spurs)	22	22nd/8th	Man Utd (Mark Hughes 15)
93/94	Andy Cole (Newcastle)	34	3rd	Man Utd (Eric Cantona 18)
94/95	Alan Shearer (Blackburn)	34	1st
95/96	Alan Shearer (Blackburn)	31	7th	Man Utd (Eric Cantona 14)
96/97	Alan Shearer (Newcastle)	25	2nd	Man Utd (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 18)
97/98	Dion Dublin (Coventry)	18	11th	Arsenal (Dennis Bergkamp 16)
	Michael Owen (Liverpool)	18	3rd
	Chris Sutton (Blackburn)	18	6th
98/99	J-F Hasselbaink (Leeds)	18	4th	Man Utd (Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke 17)
	Michael Owen (Liverpool)	18	7th
99/00	Kevin Phillips (Sunderland)	30	7th	Man Utd (Dwight Yorke 20)
00/01	J-F Hasselbaink (Chesea)	23	6th	Man Utd (Teddy Sheringham 15)
01/02	Thierry Henry (Arsenal)	24	1st
02/03	Ruud van Nistelrooy (Man Utd)	25	1st
03/04	Thierry Henry (Arsenal)	30	1st
04/05	Thierry Henry (Arsenal)	25	2nd	Chelsea (Frank Lampard 13)
05/06	Thierry Henry (Arsenal)	27	4th	Chelsea (Frank Lampard 16)
06/07	Didier Drogba (Chelsea)	20	2nd	Man Utd (Cristiano Ronaldo 17)
07/08	Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd)	31	1st
08/09	Nicolas Anelka (Arsenal)	1	3rd	Man Utd (Cristiano Ronaldo 18)
09/10	Didier Drogba (Chelsea)	29	1st
10/11	Dimitar Berbatov (Man Utd)	20	1st
	Carlos Tevez (Man City)	20	3rd
11/12	Robin van Persie (Man Utd)	30	3rd	Man City (Sergio Aguero 23)
12/13	Robin van Persie (Man Utd)	26	1st
13/14	Luis Suarez (Liverpool)	31	2nd	Man City (Yaya Toure 20)
14/15	Sergio Aguero (Man City)	26	2nd	Chelsea (Diego Costa 20)
15/16	Harry Kane (Tottenham)	25	3rd	Leicester (Jamie Vardy 24)
16/17	Harry Kane (Tottenham)	29	2nd	Chelsea (Diego Costa 20)
17/18	Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)	32	4th	Man City (Sergio Aguero 21)
18/19	Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)	22	2nd	Man City (Sergio Aguero 21)
	Sadio Mane (Liverpool)	22	2nd
	P-E Aubameyang (Arsenal)	22	5th
19/20	Jamie Vardy (Leicester)	23	5th	Liverpool (Mohamed Salah 19)
20/21	Harry Kane (Tottenham)	23	7th	Man City (Ilkay Gundogan 13)