Premier League top scorers of the 2000s
Top 20
Ten seasons, 2000/01 to 2009/10, and one forward a long way clear: Thierry Henry's 157 is forty-five more than anybody else managed in the decade, and he had left for Barcelona with three seasons of it still to play.
Below him the table is a fair picture of the years when four clubs pulled away from the rest. It is also, quietly, the decade in which a midfielder finished second on the scoring charts, which had not happened before and has not happened since.
| # | Player | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thierry HenryArsenal2000/01–2006/07 | 157 |
| 2 | Frank LampardChelsea, West Ham United2000/01–2009/10 | 112 |
| 3 | Robbie KeaneTottenham Hotspur, Leeds United, Liverpool2000/01–2009/10 | 109 |
| 4 | Wayne RooneyManchester United, Everton2002/03–2009/10 | 106 |
| 5 | Michael OwenLiverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester United2000/01–2009/10 | 99 |
| 6 | Jermain DefoeTottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Portsmouth2000/01–2009/10 | 97 |
| 7 | Ruud van NistelrooyManchester United2001/02–2005/06 | 95 |
| 8 | Jimmy Floyd HasselbainkChelsea, Middlesbrough, Charlton Athletic2000/01–2006/07 | 93 |
| 9 | Nicolas AnelkaManchester City, Chelsea, Bolton Wanderers + 1 more2001/02–2009/10 | 93 |
| 10 | Mark VidukaLeeds United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United2000/01–2008/09 | 92 |
| 11 | James BeattieSouthampton, Everton, Stoke City2000/01–2009/10 | 86 |
| 12 | Alan ShearerNewcastle United2000/01–2005/06 | 84 |
| 13 | Cristiano RonaldoManchester United2003/04–2008/09 | 84 |
| 14 | Didier DrogbaChelsea2004/05–2009/10 | 84 |
| 15 | Steven GerrardLiverpool2000/01–2009/10 | 79 |
| 16 | Yakubu AiyegbeniPortsmouth, Middlesbrough, Everton2003/04–2009/10 | 78 |
| 17 | Darren BentCharlton Athletic, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur + 1 more2001/02–2009/10 | 74 |
| 18 | Craig BellamyNewcastle United, Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City + 3 more2000/01–2009/10 | 73 |
| 19 | Louis SahaManchester United, Fulham, Everton2001/02–2009/10 | 73 |
| 20 | Emile HeskeyLiverpool, Wigan Athletic, Birmingham City + 1 more2000/01–2009/10 | 70 |
Just outside. The next five are Andy Cole (64), Kevin Phillips (62), Robert Pirès (62), Emmanuel Adebayor (60) and Paul Scholes (60).
What the table shows
Frank Lampard's 112 goals from midfield is the entry that most people misremember, usually downward. Six of the twenty scored every one of their decade goals for a single club, among them Henry, van Nistelrooy and Drogba — a much higher proportion than the nineties list, and a direct consequence of the money that had arrived at the top of the league.
The bottom half is where the decade actually lives. Names like Viduka, Beattie, Yakubu and Bent were the strikers a mid-table club was built around, scoring twelve to eighteen a season for teams that finished eighth, and there is no equivalent tier in the league now.