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Premier League: Most goals as a substitute

We look at the players with the most goals off the bench in Premier League history.

Premier League

Most Premier League goals as a substitute

Aston Villa's Jhon Duran's remarkable efforts from the bench in the opening weeks of the 2024/25 Premier League season have seen him close the gap on the most winning goals from the substitutes' bench - seven players have five, with Duran now on three - but in terms of all goals, the Colombian, with eight, has a long way to go to catch the leaders.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, one of the Premier League's most iconic super-subs, netted four in one game against Nottingham Forest despite playing just 20 minutes. That actually accounted for nearly a quarter of all his goals off the bench for United, with the other 74 Premier League goals coming in his 151 starts.

With the likes of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp taking centre stage for Arsenal. Nwankwo Kanu was often limited to a place on the bench at Highbury. The Nigerian scored nine goals having started as a sub for Arsenal with one more for West Brom, and with his career winding down at Portsmouth, Kanu added seven more to join Solskjaer on 17.

Daniel Sturridge is surprisingly tied with Solskjaer and Kanu on 17. While the Liverpool man forged a lethal partnership with Luis Suarez, Sturridge netted seven in the early part of his career for Manchester City, Chelsea and Bolton before adding 10 more with Liverpool.

While Solskjaer earned the adulation of Manchester United supporters with his role as a super-sub, Javier Hernandez played a similar role. With his Old Trafford career overlapping with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Robin van Persie, Hernandez was often used off the bench, scoring 14 times before adding five more for West Ham.

Despite spending nine seasons in the Premier League and going on to be France's top goalscorer, Olivier Giroud didn't spend all that much time as a first-choice centre-forward at Arsenal or Chelsea. Giroud made 255 Premier League appearances, with 103 coming from the bench and would score 17 goals as a sub for Arsenal (10 coming in his final two seasons at the Emirates) and four more for Chelsea.

Ninth on the list of the Premier League's all-time top goalscorers at the start of the 2024/25 campaign, Jermain Defoe tops the list for goals as a sub. Making a name for himself at West Ham, Defoe would score nine from the bench before earning his move to Tottenham where across two spells he'd add 13 more.

In the latter stages of his Premier League career, Defoe played with Sunderland and Bournemouth, scoring once off the bench for each to hold the record for most goals as a substitute.

Player

Goals as a substitute

Jermain Defoe

24

Olivier Giroud

21

Javier Hernandez

19

Nwankwo Kanu

17

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

17

Daniel Sturridge

17

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