Ranking Erling Haaland’s Biggest Challengers for the Premier League Golden Boot Award

Since arriving at Manchester City in the summer of 2022, Erling Haaland has practically held the Premier League’s Golden Boot award hostage. The prize is given to the English top flight’s top goalscorer at the end of every season, and the Norwegian hitman has romped to the award in three of his four seasons at the Etihad Stadium. And if his blistering form to start the 2026/27 campaign is anything to go by, the former Borussia Dortmund man seems to be in no mood to relinquish his trophy. 

Haaland’s Blistering Form 

Haaland has already bagged three goals in as many Premier League games for the Blues this season. He also netted twice in City’s recent 2-0 win away at FC Porto in the Champions League, taking his tally to five in five for the season. As such, it should come as no surprise to hear that online betting sites make the bruising striker an overwhelming favorite to finish as the Premier League’s top scorer for a fourth time in five seasons. 

The latest sports betting odds make Haaland a short-priced odds-on 1/2 frontrunner to claim the Golden Boot this term. But just because the odds are short, one shouldn’t think that the ex-Molde youngster is invincible. Liverpool legend Mohamed Salah pipped City’s number nine to the coveted prize in 2024/25 when he netted 29 goals to help the Reds win the Premier League for the second time in five years. 

That was enough to secure the Golden Boot award that year, but which strikers are considered Haaland’s biggest threats to goalscoring supremacy in 2026/27? Let’s take a look. 

Haaland gets his first home goal of season but it was the cross that was insane 🤯 pic.twitter.com/kb5tFESx8v

— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) September 5, 2026

João Pedro

Chelsea’s João Pedro is currently considered Haaland’s chief rival in the race for the Golden Boot award this season, with the bookies pricing him as a 6/1 second-favorite. He too has netted three times in the Premier League this term, albeit having played one game more than the big Norwegian. And considering the attacking trident he is at the head of at Stamford Bridge this term, perhaps the threat should be taken seriously. 

The Brazilian was the sole bright spark in a miserable Chelsea team last season, netting 20 goals in all competitions in his maiden campaign in West London after a £60m move from Brighton last summer. He had to pick up much of the slack left behind by an injury-riddled, out-of-form Cole Palmer. This term, however, Cold P is back to his best, already assisting two of Pedro’s four goals. And not only that, but the former Watford striker now has another creative option on the left-hand flank in the form of £117m man Morgan Rogers. 

That trio of Pedro, Palmer, and Rogers is arguably the finest attack in the entire Premier League, and a slew of chances will be served up to the Brazilian international each and every week. Add to that the fact that the Blues have a defense that’s currently shipping goals at an average of over two per game, and Pedro will be under pressure to ensure he keeps scoring those goals that help Chelsea pick up three points every week. If he is up to the task at hand, then he will likely push Haaland close in the race for the Golden Boot this season. 

Alexander Isak 

Swedish striker Alexander Isak was a regular on the scoresheet during his Newcastle days. He netted 54 Premier League goals in 86 games throughout a three-year stint on Tyneside, and his tally of 23 in the 2024/25 season was one more than Haaland managed, albeit not quite the 29 Salah managed when he picked up the Golden Boot award. 

Isak would join Salah at Anfield last summer after a lengthy saga culminated in him joining Liverpool for a British record of £125m from the Magpies. However, his maiden campaign on Merseyside couldn’t have gone any worse. Fitness issues after refusing to train with Newcastle in preseason plagued the first half of the campaign, before a broken leg in the December 20th victory away at Tottenham Hotspur ended his maiden season with the club prematurely. 

Despite the fact that he managed just three goals in 14 league games last term, the bookies still consider the former Real Sociedad hitman a 6/1 shot to win the Golden Boot award this season. He, like both Pedro and Haaland, already has three goals under his belt in the Premier League, and he looks to be returning to the kind of form he showcased on a regular basis at St. James’ Park. If he can sustain that form throughout the entire season, then he could well be in with a shot of finishing the campaign as top scorer also. 

Kai Havertz 

If there’s one thing that defending champions Arsenal don’t currently have, it’s an out-and-out goalscorer. Viktor Gyokeres was signed last summer in the hopes that he would be that man, and while he did top score with 21 goals in all competitions, he didn’t display the kind of prolific form that saw him net 97 goals in 102 games across two seasons in Portugal with Sporting CP. As such, he has since lost his spot in the starting line-up to a fit-again Kai Havertz, and it’s now the German who is tasked with firing the goals required for the Gunners to defend their Premier League title. 

Havertz has never been considered a goalscorer. He did manage 38 goals in all competitions across his last two seasons with boyhood club Bayer Leverkusen, but since heading to England in the summer of 2020, the goals have somewhat dried up; Across six years in the Premier League with Chelsea and now Arsenal, Havertz has managed to reach ten league goals just once. Odds of 25/1 indicate that he remains an outside threat, but his two goals in three league games so far this term suggest that he should still be respected.