Players with the most opening-day Premier League goals

The Premier League has witnessed some blockbuster opening-day fixtures, but which players have contributed the most goals in the season’s first game?

FootballFanCast has looked at the nine players who have scored more times than anyone else in the Premier League’s opening-day fixtures.

For this list, we have listed the players who have scored the most times on the first matchday, with the number of games scored in and opening-day appearances used as a tiebreaker.

All stats correct as of 15th August 2024.

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9

Didier Drogba

6 goals

Didier Drogba’s arrival in west London marked the beginning of a new era.

He was one of the many summer signings made by newly appointed Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho in 2004 in a recruitment drive led by Roman Abramovich that also saw the likes of Petr Cech, Arjen Robben and Ricardo Carvalho join the club.

Drogba became a key player for Mourinho and Chelsea, helping them to win the Premier League for the first time in 50 years during his first season at the club. He also had a knack for scoring important goals, specifically on the opening day of the season.

In August 2006, Drogba’s goal capped off a convincing 3-0 win over Manchester City. Three years later, his injury-time winner against Hull City handed new Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti a victorious first game in charge. In 2010, Drogba’s 23-minute hat-trick against West Brom in a 6-0 thrashing got the champions’ defence off to the perfect start.

Drogba had the ability to perform on the grandest stages, and his Premier League legacy, which included four titles and two Golden Boots, will be remembered forever.

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8

Louis Saha

6 goals

A young Louis Saha spearheaded a newly transformed Fulham to Premier League promotion following his arrival from Metz for £2.1m in June 2000.

And it was here when the prolific Frenchman really made a name for himself in Fulham’s inaugural top-flight season.

Saha had scored 27 goals the previous campaign to finish as the league’s top scorer, and it was his partnership with Barry Hayles that enabled Fulham to reach a then-record of 101 points and gain promotion.

Although his side eventually fell 3-2 to Manchester United – which was hardly anything to be ashamed of in the noughties – Saha scored his first Premier League goal for Fulham on the opening day of the 2001/02 season.

A brace, which included a neat dink over Man United goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, had Fulham ahead twice with early goals in each half, cementing Saha’s name in the annals of the English top flight.

Saha won his only career Player of the Month award that August, and you could argue his performance at Old Trafford that day was almost an audition, as he later went on to sign for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side in January 2004 for £12.8m.

In a largely injury-ridden career, Saha went on to score 85 goals in 289 Premier League appearances and lift the trophy in 2007 and 2008.

He also scored the fastest goal in FA Cup final history after 25 seconds in May 2009 – a record surpassed by Ilkay Gundogan 14 years later.

7

Jamie Vardy

7 goals

Jamie Vardy will arguably go down as one of the Premier League’s most clinical finishers, and he certainly made the most of his natural finishing abilities in the first game of numerous seasons.

Vardy is another member of the 100 club to appear on this list, having scored 136 goals in 307 appearances for Leicester City, who he has played for since 2012.

In what turned out to be a record-breaking season for Vardy, he first scored on the opening day of the 2015/16 Premier League season against Sunderland in a 4-2 win at the King Power Stadium.

That same campaign, Vardy set a new record by scoring in 11 consecutive matches – surpassing Ruud van Nistelrooy’s 2003 record of 10 straight games with a goal. Of course, Leicester also won the Premier League having been given odds of 5000/1 by bookmakers to lift the trophy at the start of the season.

Vardy’s brace wasn’t enough for Leicester in the first game of the 2017/18 season, as his side narrowly lost to Arsenal in a seven-goal thriller at the Emirates. The following year, it was Man United who faced the Englishman’s prowess on the opening day.

The striker went to score consecutive opening-day goals against Midlands clubs West Brom in September 2020 and Wolverhampton Wanderers in August 2021.

Vardy has the opportunity to climb this particular list when the Foxes take on Spurs in the first game of the 2024/25 season. Having scored on more opening days than he hasn’t, there’s every chance he’ll have his say somehow when Ange Postecoglou’s side visits the King Power under the Monday night lights.

6

Sergio Aguero

7 goals

Sergio Aguero’s Premier League legacy will ultimately be remembered for his contribution in a particular final game of the season, but he was also prolific in front of goal at the beginning of many others.

After signing for Manchester City from Atletico Madrid for £38 million in July 2011, it didn’t take long for Aguero to put his name on the scoresheet, as he bagged a brace one month after putting pen to paper on his debut in a 4-0 win over Swansea City.

The Argentinian continued his opening-day success when he scored Man City’s first against Newcastle United in 2013. One year later, the north-east club were on the receiving end again, as Aguero added to David Silva’s 38th-minute strike at St James’ Park in the first game of the 2014/15 campaign.

Aguero went on to score opening-day goals against Sunderland, Brighton and West Ham in 2016, 2017 and 2019 respectively. During his time at Man City, he lifted the Premier League trophy five times and scored an impressive 184 goals in 275 appearances for the club.

5

Teddy Sheringham

7 goals

Teddy Sheringham’s illustrious Premier League career spanned from its inception in 1992 until 2007, when he was released by West Ham aged 40.

He made a mind-blowing 418 appearances in the Premier League, winning the inaugural Golden Boot and lifting the trophy on three successive occasions with Manchester United between 1999 and 2001.

Sheringham initially rose to prominence at Tottenham Hotspur, where he made a combined 236 appearances for the club, with over 100 appearances for Man United sandwiched in between.

He set a precedent for professional footballers to maintain the highest level of performance well into their thirties by continually scoring goals week after week.

Sheringham was named PFA Players’ Player of the Year in 2001, aged 35, after a remarkable season with Man United which saw him bag 15 goals in 29 appearances.

In terms of opening days, the London-born striker always seemed to grab a goal, whether that be in Spurs’ 4-3 away win at Hillsborough in 1994, or when he scored the first goal in Portsmouth’s 2-1 win over Aston Villa at Fratton Park.

His tally of 146 goals places him ahead of the likes of Robin van Persie, Jamie Vardy and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in the list of all-time Premier League top goalscorers.

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4

Alan Shearer

8 goals

Alan Shearer holds the all-time record for the most Premier League goals scored, which means he was bound to have scored some of his 260 goals on the opening day of the season.

With Harry Kane now at Bayern Munich, it could mean the Newcastle United man holds onto the record for even longer than he ever would have expected.

Shearer spent four years at Southampton and Blackburn Rovers, before moving to Newcastle in 1996 for a then-record fee of £15 million. He lifted the Premier League title with Blackburn in 1995, scoring 34 goals alongside fellow striker Chris Sutton, who added 15 of his own that season.

That was Shearer’s first of three consecutive Golden Boots that he won, scoring 34 goals the following season in what was a 42-match season, before bagging 31 the next, in the more recognisable 38-game format.

It was two seasons before his first Golden Boot-winning season that Shearer had arguably his best opening day success, as he scored two stunners from outside the box against Crystal Palace in 1992.

Shearer scored 206 goals at his boyhood club Newcastle across the decade he spent there and retired as their all-time leading scorer.

3

Wayne Rooney

8 goals

A 16-year-old Wayne Rooney announced himself to the Premier League when he scored a long-range stunner for Everton against Arsenal at Goodison Park in 2002.

Two years later, Rooney signed for Man United on a six-year contract under Sir Alex Ferguson, and would go on to complete one of the best careers ever seen in Premier League history.

Rooney was on target against his former club in 2005 and made it back-to-back opening-day goals in Man United’s 5-1 thrashing over Fulham the following season. He then scored the only goal against Birmingham City in 2009 and continued this trend against Swansea City and Bournemouth in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

With 208 goals in 491 appearances, Rooney is the third-highest Premier League goalscorer of all time, behind Shearer and Harry Kane. He lifted the top-flight trophy five times and won the 2009/10 Player of the Season.

2

Frank Lampard

8 goals

Widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation, Frank Lampard had a natural eye for goal.

Many people forget, but Lampard had already played nearly four full seasons in the Premier League before his move from West Ham to Chelsea in 2001, opening his account on day one on two occasions.

But it was at Chelsea as a 22-year-old where Lampard embarked on his journey to become one of the greatest midfielders the Premier League has ever seen.

Lampard scored his first opening-day Premier League goal in blue during a 3-2 win at The Valley against Charlton Athletic in August 2002. He next scored on the first day of the season in a 3-0 win over Man City four years later, before adding to his impressive record against Portsmouth in 2008.

West Brom, Wigan Athletic and Hull City also fell victim to Lampard’s opening-day goalscoring prowess.

The iconic Chelsea No 8 would go on to score 177 goals in his 609 Premier League appearances, making him the highest-scoring midfielder in the division’s history.

He has also scored on the highest number of opening matchdays with eight – one more than Rooney and Mohamed Salah. If you hadn’t guessed by now, the Egyptian may have taken his record in less than half the amount of games, but it is still an exceptional return for a midfielder.

1

Mohamed Salah

9 goals

No one could ever have predicted the impact that Mohamed Salah would have at Liverpool upon his arrival from AS Roma for £34 million in June 2017.

The 25-year-old quickly established himself as one of the Premier League’s most prolific goalscorers after scoring on his league debut against Watford in a 3-3 draw on the opening day of the 2017/18 season.

Salah continued this streak the following season against West Ham in a 4-0 win at Anfield and proceeded to score a goal on the opening day of every Premier League season until he failed to net against Chelsea in 2023. This places him above Shearer here, who fired a blank on the opening day on five separate occasions.

The Egyptian’s impressive run included a 4-1 home win over Norwich City in 2019, a hat-trick in front of an empty stadium against Leeds in 2020, as well as strikes against the Canaries once again in 2021 and away at Fulham in 2022.

He then broke the record outright when netting against newly promoted Ipswich Town on the opening day of the 2024/25 season, taking his tally to nine in just eight MD1 appearances.

Salah has won the Golden Boot three times at Liverpool and was instrumental in his club’s first league title in 30 years, among other major honours, including a Champions League in 2019.