Logically, scoring a goal helps your team win. But who are the players that have taken that to the extreme and have never lost a Premier League game while netting? Behold, these are the league’s lucky charms.
First, a quick cautionary tale. We’ll get onto the Premier League’s lucky charms in a few moments. But pour one out for the top-flight’s most unlucky player: Wolves, Stoke City and Burnley winger Michael Kightly, who scored seven Premier League goals in his career yet failed to win a single game in which he netted. Or Matt Le Tissier, who scored in 79 games across his Premier League career but still lost a staggering 32% of those matches.
Scoring and winning isn’t for everyone.
But here’s the list of the players who have scored in the most individual Premier League games without losing a single one of them.
Gabriel Jesus
60 Games Scored In – W55 D5
Aside from his four Premier League winners’ medals, Gabriel Jesus is the owner of another enviable league record. His 73 Premier League goals have come in 60 different matches, but the real kicker? In every single one of those 60 games he’s scored in, his side have never lost.
Of course, it helps that Jesus has exclusively played in dominant sides. That’s why he’s managed to speed up this list so quickly, despite playing just 217 matches in the competition. The majority of those (159) have been for Manchester City who Jesus joined in the summer of 2016-17 – the same window that saw Pep Guardiola arrive.
Now he’s in north London having moved to Arsenal in the summer of 2022-23. At present, Jesus has a 91.7% win rate in games he’s scored in. Only two players to have scored in 20+ games without losing can better that feat (Pedro 96.3% and Antonio Valencia 95.7%).
James Milner
54 Games Scored In – W43 D11
James Milner always appears in these lists, doesn’t he? When he’s not appearing in the list for the youngest Premier League scorers of all-time, or those who’ve made the most appearances, he appears in ones like this.
Milner has scored in 54 games across his Premier League career in spells at Leeds United, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Liverpool. Only Jesus has scored in more games without losing a single one of them.
Mr. Reliable does it once again… but he’s still yet to score for current side Brighton & Hove Albion in the competition.
Diogo Jota
48 Games Scored In – W41 D7
Liverpool’s Diogo Jota has scored in 48 games without losing – a tally only beaten by two players. The 27-year-old has time on his side, too, and will surely overtake Milner on this list before his time in the league is over.
Overall, the Portuguese forward scored in 34 different league games under Jürgen Klopp without losing and has added a further two under new Reds boss Arne Slot.
His time on Merseyside got off to a flying start, with Jota not only becoming the first player since Robbie Fowler to score as many as seven goals in his first 10 appearances, but the first Liverpool player to score in each of his first four Premier League home games.
Jota also scored in 12 different matches for Wolves during his time at Molineux and wasn’t on the losing side with them either. That’s perhaps a slightly more impressive feat given Jota’s first season in the top flight came as Wolves had just been promoted.
Darius Vassell
46 Games Scored In – W36 D10
Darius Vassell scored 52 Premier League goals across 265 appearances for Aston Villa and Manchester City. Those goals came in 46 games and Vassell remained unbeaten in every single one.
Vassell did find himself on the losing side after scoring for Leicester City in their 3-2 loss to Nottingham Forest in April 2011, but thankfully for him this came in the Championship and not the top flight. His place on this list is therefore safe.
Of course, you don’t have to lose a game for footballing heartbreak to find you as Vassell knows all too well. After England’s 2-2 draw against Portugal in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004, Vassell missed England’s last spot-kick in the penalty shootout, allowing Portugal’s goalkeeper Ricardo to score the winner.
Rather than that painful memory, perhaps we ought to remember Vassell more fondly for being Villa and City’s lucky charm over a large chunk of the noughties.
Erling Haaland
45 Games Scored In – W39 D6
There’s probably never going to be a goals-based record that Erling Haaland isn’t in the mix for, and this one is no different. The Manchester City man has scored in 45 separate Premier League games, with his side winning 39 and drawing six of those.
What’s frightening about the Norwegian’s record here is just how quickly he’s jumped into the top five of this list. Haaland has made just 73 appearances in the competition at the time of writing, and the two either side of him on this list have played 265 games – in Vassell’s case – and Salomon Kalou (below) played 156 times.
Haaland joined Man City in the summer of 2022 and played a critical role in their continental treble, breaking the record for the most goals scored in a single Premier League season along the way.
Pep Guardiola’s side have never lost when Haaland has notched and, given their domestic dominance, we can expect him to race up this list.
Salomon Kalou
32 Games Scored In – W29 D3
Salomon Kalou is another striker blessed to have played in a dominant team during his Premier League days. Although he won just one Premier League title with Chelsea over his six-year career in west London, he was still part of the team that won both the FA Cup and League Cup in 2006-07 as well as finishing second in the Premier League, and part of the side that finished second, third, first and second in the four subsequent seasons.
Kalou – who had been brought to the club by José Mourinho after impressing with Feyenoord in the Eredivisie – only hit double figures for league goals in one season (2010-11), but whenever he scored, Chelsea were safe. He notched in 32 games for the Blues, winning 29 of those and drawing three.
That’s the top six, but how about a look at the other players to have scored in 20+ Premier League games and not taste defeat. As mentioned, Pedro (96.3% win rate) only failed to win one of the games he scored in across his English top-flight career (a 1-1 draw against Burnley in February 2017 for those wondering).
Given his youth and the team he plays for, Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli could quickly climb up these rankings, while it’s good and just a tad surprising to see Everton captain Seamus Coleman make an appearance.
Gabriel Martinelli: 31 Games Scored In (W27 D4)
Oyvind Leonhardsen: 28 Games Scored In (W21 D7)
Pedro: 27 Games Scored In (W26 D1)
Antonio Valencia: 23 Games Scored In (W22 D1)
Georginio Wijnaldum: 23 Games Scored In (W19 D4)
Marcos Alonso: 23 Games Scored In (W17 D6)
Seamus Coleman: 22 Games Scored In (W17 D5)
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