What Would Premier League Look Like Without Its Top Scorers?
We have entered the final international break of the season and the Premier League looks all wrapped up as Liverpool find themselves 12 points clear with 9 games left to go.
But where would they be without in-form Mohamed Salah? BetUK conducted a study into this season's Premier League and removed every team's top scorer from the equation, exposing which teams are the most well-rounded and those which are over-reliant on their star players.
All the goals each team’s top scorer has bagged were removed from each fixture, the result was then altered to reflect the new score and new points total recorded in this alternative table.
The new table shows Arsenal would be on course for their third Premier League title in this alternative season. They would be clear at the top with nine games remaining, with a five-goal superior goal difference over their nearest rivals.
However, they are being stalked by Liverpool looking to close just the four-point gap, despite losing 27 goals and an effective 20 points gained after the removal of Salah.
The table demonstrates how well-rounded Bournemouth are as they only lost six points and gained six positions up into the Champions League places after the removal of their top scorer, Justin Kluivert, from their results.
Similarly to Bournemouth, Spurs had a lot to gain from this new table They only lost nine goals from James Maddison, which saw them promoted four places to tenth in the table.
Manchester United only lost eight goals from captain Bruno Fernandes, but it wasn’t enough to get them into the top half of the league as they were promoted two places to eleventh. Even an alternative table can’t help their miserable season.
Clubs Most Reliant on Their Star Player
The alternative table exposes teams such as Liverpool, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa, who are over-reliant and would be much worse off without their talisman.
But how bad actually is it?
Liverpool lost the most points (20) after losing Salah’s 27 goals, which saw them concede their lead in the Premier League to Arsenal. Salah is currently favourite to win the Premier League Golden Boot as he is six clear of his closest rival Erling Haaland with nine games to go.
The Gunners are on the opposite end of the spectrum in this alternative universe, as they only lost four points after the removal of Kai Havertz’s goalscoring contributions. Maybe he just doesn’t score important goals…
Nottingham Forest fell out of the Champions League, places to fifth after losing Chris Wood’s 18 goals, costing them 16 points, confirming his importance for Forest this season. Man City forfeited 15 points after losing Erling Haaland’s 21 goals, and Aston Villa dropped 13 points when removing Ollie Watkins from their results, proving why they did everything to keep him at Villa Park in January.
Relegation contenders Leicester City and Ipswich Town lost seven and six points respectively, losing over a third of their total points. This proves that Jamie Vardy and Liam Delap are the only two players giving their teams a glimpse of survival in what looks to be a yo-yo season for all three newly promoted clubs.
Southampton and Spurs were the least affected by the removal of their top scorers Paul Onuachu and James Maddison only losing two points each. Southampton don’t have many points to lose as they creep closer to a record-breaking season, only managing to secure nine points from their 29 games thus far.
Methodology
The data was collected using Premier League official results and standings on 17/03/2025. All goals scored by each club's leading goal scorer* were deducted from the score, to create a new scoreline. Points were given to each team for the new result following the same Premier League points system. *own goals scored were kept, and in the event of more than one player being the top scorer, a single player was selected.