Who are the best Premier League strikers in 2024? | OneFootball

The Premier League is home to some of the world’s most lethal strikers.

Some phenomenal goalscorers (and some not so good forwards) have graced the beautiful game in England’s top flight in years gone by and we are lucky to have witnessed some of their greatness. From Alan Shearer to Thierry Henry to Harry Kane to Sergo Aguero and everyone in between, the Premier League has been blessed with the world’s most lethal marksmen.

But what about the strikers in the division today?

We’ve taken a look at the best so far this season and since the start of 2024 based on their Squawka Score.

The best Premier League strikers of the 2023/24 season so far:

*excluding those who have played fewer than half available minutes (1,260).

Who are the best Premier League strikers of 2024?

But who are the standout strikers from the start of 2024?

You’ll find a list below based on their Squawka Score across 20224. Only players who have played 400+ minutes of Premier League football included.

The Brazilian had a rough start to life as a Tottenham player but has finally come into his own under Ange Postecoglou and has looked a completely different player since returning from surgery. With 10 Premier League goals this season, including four in just 441 minutes of action in 2024, Richarlison has made the loss of Harry Kane slightly more bareable.

However, it’s not just the increase in goals that has seen Spurs fans take to their number nine. His incredible work-rate and hold-up play has helped him make the striker spot his own, although after recently suffering another injury he will have to do it all over again.

4. Rodrigo Muniz

When Fulham brought in Armando Broja on loan to cover for Raul Jimenez’s injury it looked like Rodrigo Muniz’s minutes would be numbered, but he has proven everybody wrong and then some. The Brazilian has been in fine form, finding the back of the net seven times in his last seven Premier League appearances, scoring six goals in his last four appearances at Craven Cottage which included a brace against Tottenham last time out.

What a turnaround it has been for Rasmus Højlund at Manchester United. After failing to find the back of the net in his opening 14 Premier League appearances, despite scoring for fun in the Champions League, the Dane has now seven league goals to his name as is the Red Devils’ joint-top goalscorer in the divsion so far this season.

The 21-year-old found the back of the net against Aston Villa, Tottenham, Wolves, West Ham, Aston Villa and Luton to become the youngest player in Premier League history to score in six consecutive matches in the competition, whilst also being the first ever Danish player to be named Premier League Player of the Month after receiving the award for February.

2. Ollie Watkins

With Harry Kane now at Bayern Munich, Ollie Watkins has a very strong case to be named as the best English striker in the Premier League right now, and the stats prove it. The Aston Villa man was the first player in the competition to score 10+ goals and provide 10+ assists and has been directly involved in more goals than any other Premier League player so far this campaign (16 goals, 10 assists).

In 2024, he is the joint top goalscorer in the Premier League alongside Rodrigo Muniz with seven goals, while no player has been directly involved in more goals (9 – level with Bukayo Saka). He is on course to become the first Aston Villa player to score 20+ goals in a single Premier League campaign and if he can get somehow outscore the cyborg Erling Haaland (among others), he would also become the first Villa player to win the Premier League Golden Boot.

Honourable mentions

With five goals and two assists so far this calendar year, Carlton Morris has stepped up to try and help Luton Town avoid returning to the Championship at the first time of asking. He became the first player to ever score in three consecutive Premier League matches for the club with strikes against Newcastle, Sheffield United and Man Utd in February, although his side would only go on to take one point from those three games.

Unfortunately for Matheus Cunha, his season was cut short through injury at the worst possible time just as it looked like he was set for a new personal best in terms of goals in a top-flight leage campaign. After becoming just the second Wolves player to score a Premier League hat-trick after Diogo Jota with three goals against Chelsea, his next game against Brentford lasted just 20 minutes as he was forced off and unlikely to feature again this term.

1. Darwin Nunez

It probably will, but it absolutely shouldn’t surprise you to see Darwin Nunez here. Even despite the odd inexplicable moment of frustration in front of goal, the Uruguay international has still helped himself to 10 goals in the Premier League this season. Perhaps more importantly, Nunez has also provided seven assists — second only to Mohamed Salah at Liverpool — while he’s looked threatening pretty much every time the ball has come near the opposition box.

As you can see from the graphic above, Nunez’s conversion rate has been pretty poor in 2024, missing the second most big chances after Erling Haaland during this calendar year, but he has been unlucky, becoming the first player in Premier League history to hit the woodwork 4+ times in the same game . However, with five goals and two assists in just 517 minutes of action, ‘Captain Chaos’, as he has been nicknamed by the Liverpool faithful, has more than made up for his misses with some important goals, especially away from home.

Three of the Uruguay forward’s seven away league goals have come in stoppage time, two have been stoppage-time winners, including a 90+9′ minute winner vs Brentford, while four have been the opening goal of the game.

Squawka Score metrics and weighting

We used Twenty3 Sport’s Discovery Tool to run a customised search. The Discovery Tool rates a player’s per 90 output in the metrics detailed below to produce a percentage score, referred to above as the Squawka Score.

Each player’s stats are compared to the average output of strikers across the past three seasons of big-five European league football. The higher the score, the closer they rank to the 95th percentile and above for each metric.

We also weighted each stat from 1 to 5 to highlight the most important aspects of a striker’s play style.

Here are the metrics used and weighting given to each metric to come up with the overall Squawka Score:

To be awarded a score, a player must have reached the automatically calculated minutes threshold, in this case, 400 minutes in the Premier League during 2024.