Logically, scoring a goal helps your team win. But who are those 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: Huddersfield Town and Brentford’s Zanka, who has ended up on the losing side in all four of the games he’s scored in to date. Or Matt Le Tisser, 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 that have scored in the most individual 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 exceptionally dominant sides. That’s why he’s managed to speed up this list so quickly, despite playing just 202 matches in the competition.
159 of those came 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 and after narrowly missing out on adding a fifth Premier League title to his personal honours list in his debut season at the club, 2023-24 still offers a chance of glory.
At present, Jesus has a 91.7% win rate in games that he’s scored in – that includes Arsenal’s 2-1 victory away at Nottingham Forest on Matchday 22 of this season. 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.
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 of this list is 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 Aston Villa and Man City’s lucky charm over a large chunk of the noughties.
Diogo Jota
45 Games Scored In – W38 D7
Last season was a frustrating one for Diogo Jota. He was only able to play 33% of league minutes for Liverpool (1,131) in what was an injury-interrupted campaign. Injury may have halted his 2023-24 season, too, following a knee injury against Brentford in February. He’s already beaten last season’s goal tally (7) with his nine strikes in 19 games this season, but the severity of that injury will decide if he will get the chance to reach double figures for the first time since 2021-22 (15).
That’s good news for Liverpool, with Jota being one of the most luckiest players in Premier League history. His total of 45 games scored in without losing is only beaten by three players, and the 27-year-old has time on his side.
Overall, the Portuguese has scored in 33 different league games for Jurgen Klopp’s side and hasn’t been on the losing side once. 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.
Erling Haaland
34 Games Scored In – W29 D5
There’s 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 34 separate Premier League games, with his side winning 29 and draw five 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. He’s recently moved ahead of Salomon Kalou (below), but while Kalou’s goals came over a 156-game career, Haaland has made just 55 appearances in the competition at the time of writing.
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 the list, while it’s good to see Everton’s reliable skipper Seamus Coleman make an appearance.
Oyvind Leonhardsen: 28 Games Scored In (W21 D7)
Gabriel Martinelli: 28 Games Scored In (W24 D4)
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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