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The 27th season of the English Premier league kick-starts with the opening fixture between 2018-19 runner-up Liverpool and promoted Norwich City. In the 26 preceding seasons of the English top flight (rechristened as the English Premier League since 1993-94), 28 players have scored a century of goals.
There are a number of players who have notched up impressive goal-scoring records over the years. Arsenal's Thierry Henry, for instance, is the highest scoring 'non-English' player in the league's history. And Wayne Rooney's 183 goals for Manchester United is the highest tally of Premier League goals by a player for any club.
Mohamed Salah's 32 goals for Liverpool in the 2017-18 season is the highest goal tally in the history of a 20-team Premier League season.
Meanwhile, Ryan Giggs is the only player to score a goal in each of the first 21 seasons (all for Manchester United) of the English Premier league. And Jamie Vardy's scoring streak in 11 consecutive games (2015-16 for Leicester City) is the best in Premier League history.
Shearer and Aguero are two of only five players in the Premier league to have scored five goals in a game (the others being Andy Cole, Jermain Defoe and Dimitar Berbatov). Henry and Aguero are the only Premier League players to have scored 20 goals in 5 consecutive seasons.
Craig Bellamy has scored Premier League goals for 7 different clubs, which is the highest number of clubs by a player to have scored for.
On that note, here is a list of the six most prolific goal scorers in Premier League history.
#6 Sergio Aguero (164)
Aguero's tally of 164 Premier League goals from 239 games is the sixth best in the history of the league.
In his eighth season playing for Manchester City, the Argentinian's 21 goals inspired his club to their fourth English top flight title in the last eight years and the club's first successful top flight title defence in the Premier League era.
The only active player in the Premier League's all-time top six goalscorer list, Aguero has scored at least 20 goals in the league in each of the last five seasons (2014-15 to 2018-19)
Among 28 players to have scored a century of Premier League goals, Aguero's scoring ratio of 0.69 per game is the joint best in the league's history along with Harry Kane.
#5 Thierry Henry (175)
Henry is Arsenal's all-time record goal scorer.
With a rich haul of 175 Premier League goals in 258 games across 9 seasons for the club, the Frenchman is the most prolific foreign player and the fifth highest goal scorer in the history of the Premier League.
Henry's 30 goals in the 2003-04 season played a big role in Arsenal's unbeaten run to the Premier League title.
#4 Frank Lampard (177)
The only midfielder to feature in the Premier League's all-time top-six goal-scoring table, Frank Lampard scored 177 goals in 609 games for four clubs (West Ham, Swansea, Chelsea and Manchester City).
The Englishman's most productive Premier League years were with Chelsea, for whom he amassed 147 goals from 429 games across 13 seasons. That's an impressive tally for a player who wasn't an out-and-out striker, and something that makes him stand out in this list.
#3 Andy Cole (187)
With a tally of 187 goals in 414 games for seven clubs (Newcastle, Manchester United, Blackburn, Fulham, Manchester City, Portsmouth and Sunderland), Andy Cole is the English Premier League's all-time third-highest goal-scorer.
Cole's eight seasons at Manchester United inspired the club to five Premier League titles, during the early managerial years of Sir Alex Ferguson at the Old Trafford club.
#2 Wayne Rooney (208)
Manchester United's all-time highest goal-scorer Wayne Rooney is the second most prolific scorer in the history of the English Premier League.
All but 25 of Rooney's 208 Premier League goals (494 appearances) have come for the Old Trafford club.
Rooney is one of only two players to have tallied a double century of goals in the Premier League.
#1 Alan Shearer (260)
Newcastle's all-time highest goal-scorer, and the first to score a century of goals in the English Premier League, Alan Shearer, with a tally of 260 goals in 441 appearances for Blackburn and Newcastle, is the league's all-time most prolific goal scorer.
The Englishman is the only player to score 30 Premier League goals in three successive seasons (all for Blackburn; 1993-94 to 1995-96).
Shearer's 11 Premier League hat-tricks is only equaled by Sergio Aguero, while the Englishman's 5 hat-tricks in the 1995-96 season for Blackburn is a league record for most hattricks in a season.
