As we return from a rather dour international break for England, the excitement of the Premier League beckons, and does so on the precipice of a record.
That's because Cole Palmer’s 95th minute penalty against Manchester City was the 12,499th goal scored by an Englishman in Premier League history. Whoever gets the next one will make it a nice, round figure – half of 25,000 and a quarter of 50,000!
Premier League player betting specials
Who will score the 12,500th PL goal from an English player?
With Manchester City playing Liverpool first, any Englishman on either side has an advantage over the rest of the PL. In terms of English candidates to score, there is one runaway favourite.
Phil Foden to score anytime vs Liverpool – 3/1
Man City closed the last round of games with an explosive 4-4 draw with Chelsea, and they will open this one with a goliath clash with title rivals Liverpool at 12:30 on Saturday.
Leading lights Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah are the favourites to open the scoring in this one, but Foden has the opportunity to make a mark on the title race, and is the bookies’ favourite Englishman to score in this one.
Foden has form in this fixture, having scored three in five previous appearances against the Reds.
Callum Wilson to open the scoring vs Chelsea – 6/1
Injury-hit Newcastle are hosts to a resurgent Chelsea at 3pm on Saturday. Wilson has been in exceptional form this term, and actually boasts a goals per 90 minutes rate better than Erling Haaland. He is also scoring a Premier League goal every 69 minutes.
Missing Sven Botman, Harvey Barnes, Dan Burn, Alexander Isak, Jacob Murphy and Matt Targett, Newcastle will be relying on Wilson to provide a winning goal against Chelsea.
Bukayo Saka to score anytime vs Brentford – 23/10
Arsenal sit a point off top-spot, and will be watching events in the north-west very closely as they prepare for a tough match of their own against Brentford.
The Bees have made a habit of making life difficult for the big six. Last season they defeated Manchester United, City, Liverpool and Chelsea at home.
The Gunners will likely turn to star man Bukayo Saka for inspiration. The 22-year-old has 13 goal contributions in just 15 games this season, despite many pundits and fans wondering if he is at 100% yet.
Saka also scored a winning goal against Brentford only last year.
Who has scored previous PL milestone goals?
1st goal – Brian Deane scored the first goal in Premier League history, on Saturday, 15th August 1992 for Sheffield United against Manchester United at Bramall Lane, with an early header just four minutes into the new era.
1,000th goal – Mike Newell scored the 1,000th PL goal in 1993, wearing the blue and white of Blackburn Rovers. He would go on to be a part of Rovers’ famous title-winning side the following season.
10,000th goal – Opening the scoring in a 4-0 thrashing of Fulham, Les Ferdinand scored the new top-flight’s 10,000th goal for Spurs in December 2001. At the time, only Shearer and Cole had scored more in the PL than the prolific Ferdinand.
20,000th goal – Then-Aston Villa winger Marc Albrighton netted teh 20,000th PL goal in 2011. Albrighton generously donated £20,000 to charity to mark the occasion.
25,000th goal – Probably the biggest name on this list, the inimitable Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the 25,000th goal in PL history against Swansea in November 2016. The famously confident Swede, when told of the landmark, said “I thought it was only me who had scored 25,000!”.
30,000th goal – New Zealander Chris Wood netted the most recent milestone goal in 2021, as his then-side Burnley drew 1-1 at home to Leeds United.
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