Six matchweeks into the 2026-27 Premier League season, the Golden Boot race is already taking shape, and the early signs point to a familiar name at the top. Erling Haaland has started the season the way he usually does, and Manchester City’s red-hot attacking form is dragging his numbers up with it. Behind him, a mix of proven finishers and a couple of new arrivals are jostling for position.
This guide breaks down where the Golden Boot race stands, who the bookmakers and data models see as the main contenders, how the assist race is shaping up, and how you can track the exact live numbers as the season goes on, since goal and assist totals change every single weekend. We also look back at Golden Boot history, because the way past races have unfolded says a lot about how this one is likely to play out.
Quick Answer: Premier League Golden Boot Race
- Early leader: Erling Haaland (Manchester City), the fastest starter in the league so far this season
- Betting favorite: Haaland, priced as short as 1.50 by several sportsbooks as of mid-September
- Closest bookmaker challengers: Chelsea’s João Pedro (around 8.00) and Liverpool’s Alexander Isak (around 9.00)
- Team attacking data: Manchester City’s total expected goals (xG) output has been the highest in the league through the opening weeks, ahead of Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea, who are closely bunched
- Man City’s form: A five-match winning run, including a 5-3 win over Sunderland, the league’s highest-scoring game of the season so far
- Reigning champion: Haaland won the 2025-26 Golden Boot with 27 goals
- Golden Boot record: 36 goals, set by Haaland in 2022-23, the highest single-season total in Premier League history
- Where to check live numbers: The official Premier League stats hub, Sky Sports, Squawka, and ESPN all update goal and assist totals after every match
Below, we explain why Haaland is out in front again, who the main challengers are, how the assist race looks, and how the market and the underlying data see the rest of the season playing out.
Why Erling Haaland Leads the Golden Boot Race Again
Haaland has topped the Premier League scoring charts in three of the last four seasons, and reporting from mid-September has him out in front once more. Wikipedia’s live season summary lists Haaland as the division’s top goalscorer through the opening weeks of the campaign, with Manchester City putting together the league’s best current form. The same summary shows City on a five-match winning streak and involved in the season’s highest-scoring game so far, a 5-3 win over Sunderland on September 20.
That kind of team form tends to be the biggest single factor behind any Golden Boot campaign. A striker can only score as many goals as his team creates chances, and City’s attacking output under this system has been the strongest in the league by the numbers.
Haaland’s Golden Boot History
Haaland’s recent scoring record explains why he opens every season as the clear favorite. According to Sky Sports’ historical Golden Boot list, Haaland has won the Golden Boot in:
- 2022-23: 36 goals, a single-season Premier League record
- 2023-24: 27 goals
- 2025-26: 27 goals
He finished second to Mohamed Salah in 2024-25, when Salah scored 29 goals to equal Thierry Henry’s record of four Golden Boots. That history shows Haaland is capable of both dominant, record-breaking seasons and slightly quieter ones where he still finishes on top, which is exactly why bookmakers continue to install him as a heavy favorite year after year.
Golden Boot Betting Odds and Market Favorites
Betting markets offer a useful, fast-moving snapshot of how the race is perceived, even though odds are not a guarantee of anything. According to a Golden Boot prediction model published in mid-September, Haaland was priced as short as 1.50 by several sportsbooks to win the award, making him the clear market leader. Behind him, Chelsea’s João Pedro was priced around 8.00 and Liverpool’s Alexander Isak around 9.00, positioning both as the next tier of contenders.
The same report also highlighted Arsenal’s Kai Havertz as a name to watch, though it flagged a note of caution: based on his career averages and the volume of chances he had taken so far, the model predicted a relatively modest goal total for him over a full season unless his shot conversion improved significantly.
What the Underlying Data (xG) Says
Expected goals (xG) data adds another layer to the picture beyond the raw goal counts. The same mid-September report found that Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea had each accumulated a total team xG of between 6.5 and 6.8 in their opening matches, showing similar overall attacking output, while Manchester City’s total team xG stood at 7.7, noticeably ahead of the chasing pack.
That gap matters for the Golden Boot race specifically. A higher-xG team generally creates more high-quality scoring chances across the whole squad, which is exactly the kind of service that has fueled Haaland’s past Golden Boot campaigns. If City’s attacking numbers hold up, history suggests Haaland will remain the man to catch.
Contenders to Watch This Season
Beyond Haaland, several players have been flagged by bookmakers, data models, and match reports as realistic Golden Boot contenders or breakout scorers to track through the autumn.
Alexander Isak (Liverpool)
Isak’s move to Liverpool was one of the season’s biggest transfer stories, and he arrives with a track record of clinical finishing from his time at Newcastle United. Bookmakers have priced him as one of the closer challengers to Haaland, and Liverpool’s own attacking numbers have been strong enough this season to support a serious Golden Boot push if he settles quickly into the side.
João Pedro (Chelsea)
João Pedro has emerged as Chelsea’s most dangerous forward option and sits just behind Isak in the outright betting market. Chelsea’s overall attacking numbers have been competitive with the league’s best teams through the early weeks, giving him a solid platform to keep scoring.
Kai Havertz (Arsenal)
Havertz has scored twice already this season, according to the mid-September prediction model, though from a relatively low volume of clear scoring chances so far. Arsenal’s overall team xG has been strong, so a jump in his chance volume, rather than a change in his finishing, is probably the clearest path to more goals from him over the rest of the campaign.
The Breakout Names From August
The opening weeks of the season also produced some eye-catching individual moments from less obvious names. Yahoo Sports’ Golden Boot tracker highlighted Everton’s Thierno Barry, who scored in a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace in August, and Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo, who was involved in a 2-2 draw at Newcastle. Results like these are a reminder that the early-season scoring charts often include a surprise name or two before the league’s biggest strikers pull away, which is exactly what happened with Brentford’s Igor Thiago and Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo during last season’s race.
Why New Signings Like Isak Change the Calculation
Alexander Isak’s move to Liverpool is a good example of how a single transfer can reshape the entire Golden Boot conversation. A proven, high-volume scorer joining a team that already creates plenty of chances is exactly the profile that has produced Golden Boot challengers in the past, and bookmakers reacted by pricing him among the closest challengers to Haaland almost immediately.
The adjustment period matters, though. New signings, even prolific ones, often need several matches to fully integrate into a new team’s patterns of play, understand their teammates’ movement, and adjust to a different league’s pace and physicality. That settling-in period is one reason Isak’s odds, while strong, still sit behind Haaland’s, whose familiarity with Manchester City’s system is a significant built-in advantage over a player adapting to a new club mid-career.
How the Golden Boot Race Usually Develops
If you are new to tracking this race, it helps to know the general pattern. Scoring charts in August and September are often bunched together and can include surprising names, because six games is a small sample size and finishing form can be streaky. By the turn of the year, the picture usually clarifies, and by the final months of the season, it typically comes down to two or three players with a clear gap to the rest of the field, similar to how last season played out.
Last season is a good recent example. According to NBC Sports’ recap of the 2025-26 race, Haaland finished with 27 goals, five clear of Brentford’s Igor Thiago on 22, with Bournemouth and Manchester City forward Antoine Semenyo on 17 and Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins on 16 rounding out the podium picture. Thiago’s season was a reminder that a player outside the traditional “big six” clubs can absolutely finish in the Golden Boot’s top two if he gets enough service and stays fit for most of the campaign.
A similar story played out the season before that. A beIN Sports report from February 2026 described Haaland leading with 22 goals in 27 appearances at that stage of the 2025-26 campaign, with Igor Thiago on 17 and Antoine Semenyo, who had scored goals for both Bournemouth and Manchester City that season, completing the podium with 13. The same report flagged Arsenal’s big-money signing Viktor Gyökeres as a player working through a difficult scoring drought early in his Premier League career, a reminder that even highly-rated strikers can take time to find their rhythm in England.
What History Tells Us About This Season’s Race
A quick look back at recent seasons shows just how much a Golden Boot race can move between September and May. In 2025-26, Haaland eventually won comfortably with 27 goals, but the podium behind him featured Brentford’s Igor Thiago and a Bournemouth-turned-Manchester City forward in Antoine Semenyo, neither of whom would have been an obvious pick for the podium back in August. In 2024-25, Mohamed Salah’s 29-goal season was widely regarded as one of the most complete individual scoring campaigns of the decade, built on Liverpool’s title-winning consistency across the full 38 games rather than a hot opening month.
The pattern that repeats across nearly every recent season is simple: the players who finish on top are almost always the ones playing for the teams generating the most sustained chance creation, not necessarily the ones who score the most goals in the season’s first few weeks. That is exactly why the team-level attacking data covered earlier in this guide, Manchester City’s league-leading xG figure in particular, matters just as much as any individual player’s early goal tally when trying to forecast how the rest of the 2026-27 race is likely to unfold.
Golden Boot Winners: The Full History
For context on just how competitive this race can get, here is the list of Premier League Golden Boot winners in recent years, as compiled by Sky Sports’ Golden Boot tracker:
| Season | Winner(s) | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | Erling Haaland (Man City) | 27 |
| 2024-25 | Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) | 29 |
| 2023-24 | Erling Haaland (Man City) | 27 |
| 2022-23 | Erling Haaland (Man City) | 36 |
| 2021-22 | Heung-Min Son (Tottenham) & Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) | 23 |
| 2020-21 | Harry Kane (Tottenham) | 23 |
| 2019-20 | Jamie Vardy (Leicester) | 23 |
| 2018-19 | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sadio Mané & Mohamed Salah | 22 |
| 2017-18 | Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) | 32 |
| 2016-17 | Harry Kane (Tottenham) | 29 |
Mohamed Salah’s four Golden Boots tie him with Thierry Henry for the most in Premier League history, and Haaland’s 36-goal haul in 2022-23 remains the single-season scoring record since the competition moved to a 38-game format. Those benchmarks give useful context for judging any given season’s race: even a 27 or 28-goal season, which would be a career year for most strikers, is still some way short of Haaland’s own record.
Club-by-Club Attacking Snapshot
Team form is the biggest hidden factor behind any Golden Boot race, so it helps to look beyond individual players at how entire squads are creating chances. Based on the xG figures and results referenced above, a few patterns stand out through the opening weeks of the season:
- Manchester City: The clear pace-setters on attacking data, with the league’s highest team xG and a five-match winning streak that includes the season’s highest-scoring game so far, the 5-3 win over Sunderland.
- Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea: All bunched closely together on total xG, suggesting a genuinely competitive group chasing City at the top of the attacking charts, rather than one clear second-place team.
- Mid-table sides producing surprise scorers: Everton and Brentford both produced standout individual moments early in the season, echoing last year’s pattern when Brentford’s Igor Thiago finished as the runner-up in the Golden Boot race.
- Struggling attacks: Clubs near the bottom of the table, such as Aston Villa in the early weeks, have managed only a handful of squad goals combined, which is part of why none of their individual players are challenging near the top of the scoring charts.
This kind of team-level context is often more useful than looking at a single player’s goal tally in isolation, because it helps explain whether a hot start is likely to continue or whether it might cool off once a player’s underlying service dries up.
The Fantasy Football Angle
The Golden Boot race is not just a neutral talking point; it is also one of the biggest factors in fantasy football decision-making every season. Managers building a fantasy squad typically look at the same signals covered in this guide: recent goal form, team xG, fixture difficulty, and betting market movement, since bookmakers tend to react quickly to genuine changes in a player’s underlying performance.
A few practical takeaways for fantasy managers following this race:
- Team form matters more than reputation. A big-name striker on a struggling team is often a worse fantasy pick than a lesser-known forward playing for a team creating high-quality chances every week.
- Watch for penalty duties. Golden Boot totals include penalties, and a change in a club’s designated penalty taker can meaningfully shift a player’s expected goal output for the rest of the season.
- Rotation risk is real. Clubs playing in Europe, including several of the Golden Boot contenders mentioned above, often rotate their forwards for congested fixture periods, which can interrupt a player’s scoring rhythm even when his underlying form is good.
- Set pieces add hidden value. Players who take free kicks and corners, even if they are not the primary striker, often accumulate assists that matter for wider fantasy scoring even if they are not in the Golden Boot conversation themselves.
The Assist Race: Why It’s Harder to Track Early
Assist totals tend to take longer to separate than goal totals, because a single well-taken through ball or a deflected cross can count, or not count, depending on how the officials score the game. Creative players such as Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, and Mohamed Salah have been among the league’s most reliable playmakers in recent seasons, and all three remain the kind of players worth watching in the assist charts again this year.
Rather than publish specific weekly assist totals here, which change after every match, we recommend checking a live source directly before making any decisions based on the numbers; see the “Where to Track Live Numbers” section below for the best options.
Team Context: Why Manchester City’s Form Matters So Much
Haaland’s tally is inseparable from Manchester City’s team performance, so it is worth understanding what has driven their hot start. City have put together a five-match winning streak, according to Wikipedia’s season tracker, and their 5-3 win over Sunderland on September 20 was the highest-scoring game in the Premier League so far this season. A club scoring at that rate across a run of matches gives any in-form striker the platform to post big individual numbers, and it is exactly the kind of run that has powered Haaland’s past Golden Boot campaigns.
By contrast, teams near the bottom of the table have struggled to create the same chance volume. Aston Villa, for example, have managed only a handful of goals across their squad through the opening weeks, according to their season summary, which is part of why none of their forwards currently feature among the league’s leading scorers.
Injury and Rotation Risk: The Hidden Factor in Every Golden Boot Race
Even the most dominant scoring starts can be derailed by fitness. Every recent Golden Boot race has been shaped at some point by a contender missing a stretch of matches through injury or suspension, which is part of why bookmakers build in a margin for a front-runner rather than treating early form as a guarantee.
For a player to seriously challenge for the Golden Boot, he typically needs both strong underlying numbers and the durability to start the vast majority of his team’s 38 league games. That is one more reason a heavy favorite like Haaland, who has a long track record of staying fit and available across full seasons, tends to hold up well in the betting markets even when a challenger has a hot start in August and September. It is also why a mid-season injury to any of the players discussed in this guide, Haaland included, would be one of the single biggest swings the Golden Boot market could see.
How Often Does the Betting Favorite Actually Win the Golden Boot?
Looking back at the history table above, the market favorite has won the Golden Boot more often than not in recent seasons, largely because a handful of elite strikers (Haaland, Salah, Kane) have dominated the award for the better part of a decade. That said, the list also includes several seasons where the winner was not the presumptive favorite at the season’s start, and shared Golden Boots (2021-22 and 2018-19) are a reminder that even a dominant favorite does not always run away with the award outright.
This is worth keeping in mind if you are following the race purely through a betting or fantasy lens: short-priced favorites like Haaland are favorites for good reason, but a genuinely competitive early-season field, of the kind described above with Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea all posting similar attacking numbers, has historically been capable of producing a much closer finish than the opening odds might suggest.
Where to Track Live Golden Boot Numbers
Because goal and assist totals update after every single match, the most useful thing this guide can do is point you to the sources that track them in real time, rather than publish a specific weekly ranking that goes stale within days. These are the best options:
- The official Premier League stats hub: premierleague.com/en/stats lists official goals, assists, and other player statistics club by club.
- Sky Sports’ Golden Boot tracker: Sky Sports’ live table updates after every round of fixtures and includes the full history of past winners.
- Squawka’s live top scorers table: Squawka’s Golden Boot page also separates penalty and non-penalty goals for a clearer picture of open-play scoring form.
- ESPN’s Premier League stats hub: ESPN’s stats page covers goals, assists, and card totals in one place.
- Worldfootball.net’s goals and assists tables: Goals and assists rankings, including penalties, are broken out separately.
Checking two or three of these sources together is a good habit, since minor differences sometimes appear between trackers depending on how quickly they update after a match.
Frequently Asked Questions: Premier League Golden Boot Race
Q: Who is leading the Premier League Golden Boot race right now?
A: Erling Haaland of Manchester City has been the league’s top goalscorer through the opening weeks of the 2026-27 season, helped by Manchester City’s strong early-season attacking form.
Q: Who won the Golden Boot last season?
A: Erling Haaland won the 2025-26 Golden Boot with 27 goals, five clear of Brentford’s Igor Thiago on 22 goals.
Q: What is the highest number of Premier League goals scored in a single season?
A: Erling Haaland holds the record with 36 goals in the 2022-23 season, the most in a single 38-game Premier League campaign.
Q: Who is the favorite to win the Golden Boot this season?
A: As of mid-September, bookmakers had Erling Haaland as the clear favorite, priced as short as 1.50 by several sportsbooks, with Chelsea’s João Pedro and Liverpool’s Alexander Isak among the next tier of contenders.
Q: Who has won the most Premier League Golden Boots?
A: Mohamed Salah and Thierry Henry are tied for the most Golden Boots, with four each.
Q: How is the Golden Boot winner decided if two players are level on goals?
A: If two or more players finish level on goals at the end of the season, they share the award, as happened in 2021-22 (Son and Salah) and 2018-19 (Aubameyang, Mané, and Salah).
Q: Where can I check the live, up-to-date Golden Boot standings?
A: The official Premier League stats hub, Sky Sports, Squawka, and ESPN all publish live goal and assist tables that update after every match. Links to each are in the “Where to Track Live Golden Boot Numbers” section above.
Q: Does the Golden Boot include assists?
A: No. The Golden Boot is awarded purely on goals scored. Assists are tracked separately and do not count toward the award, though a strong assist record is often a sign a team is creating enough chances to support a Golden Boot push.
Q: Are penalties counted toward the Golden Boot?
A: Yes, all goals scored count toward the Golden Boot, including penalties. Some stats trackers, such as Squawka, also show non-penalty goal totals separately for a clearer picture of open-play scoring.
Q: Which players outside the traditional “big six” have challenged for the Golden Boot recently?
A: Brentford’s Igor Thiago finished second in the 2025-26 race with 22 goals, and Bournemouth and Manchester City forward Antoine Semenyo finished third with 17, showing the race is not always limited to the league’s traditional top clubs.
Sources and Further Reading (Backlinks)
The scoring data, odds, xG figures, and historical records in this guide are drawn from established football and sports outlets. For live, continuously updated numbers, see:
- Sky Sports — Premier League Top Scorers 2026/27: Golden Boot Race Table and Rankings
- Yahoo Sports — Premier League Top Scorers: Golden Boot Rankings for 2026-27 Season
- Yahoo Sports — Premier League Live Golden Boot Rankings: Updated Top Scorers, Goal Totals for Erling Haaland and More
- European Gaming — Premier League Top Scorer 2026/27: Golden Boot Predictions
- NBC Sports — Premier League Top Scorers: Erling Haaland Holds Off Thiago, Semenyo to Win 2025-26 Golden Boot
- beIN Sports — Erling Haaland Tops the List of Top Scorers in the Premier League, With a Surprise From Viktor Gyökeres
- Squawka — Premier League Top Scorers 2026/27: Golden Boot
- Squawka — Premier League Assist Leaders 2026/27
- ESPN — English Premier League Stats, 2026-27 Season
- Premier League Official — Top Scorers 2026/27, Player Stats & Club Statistics
- worldfootball.net — Premier League 2026/2027 Top Scorers: Goals & Rankings
- worldfootball.net — Premier League 2026/2027 Assists: Top Playmakers
- TNT Sports — Premier League Top Scorers 2026/2027
- Wikipedia — 2026–27 Premier League
- Wikipedia — Erling Haaland
- Wikipedia — Premier League Golden Boot
More football and general sports coverage from our network:
- Sports Tamasha — daily sports news, previews, and how-to-watch guides
- Sports News Era — sports news, results, and analysis
- Sports Dastak — live sports updates, schedules, and features
For our ongoing Champions League coverage, including fixtures and predictions for every October matchday, see our Champions League fixtures and predictions guide as well. Every external link above is directly relevant to the Golden Boot race, Premier League scoring data, or club form. Quality and relevance matter more than link count, so when you update this article, replace outdated links rather than adding unrelated ones.
About the Premier League Golden Boot
The Golden Boot is awarded each season to the Premier League’s top goalscorer across all league matches. It has been contested since the league’s founding in 1992-93, and Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, and Mohamed Salah are among the players who have won it multiple times. If two or more players finish level on goals, they share the award, which has happened five times in the competition’s history.
Disclaimer
This guide is written for general information and reflects reports and data published at the time of writing. Goal totals, assist totals, and betting odds change constantly throughout a football season, so the specific figures and market prices mentioned here should be treated as a snapshot rather than the current live standings; always check the live trackers linked above for up-to-date numbers before making any decisions. Betting information is provided for context only and is intended for adults of legal age; please gamble responsibly and follow the laws where you live.
