West Ham has a multitude of well-known players who’ve graced the club’s top scorer leaderboard throughout its Premier League history. Looking back, who could forget club legends Trevor Morley, Tony Cottee, John Hartson, and Ian Wright as leading goalscorers in the 1990s?
More surprising is the addition of full back Julian Dicks to those names. Remember how he scored an incredible 10 league goals in the 1995/96 season?
More recently, club folk heroes like Paolo Di Canio, Dean Ashton and Kevin Nolan all finished EPL seasons as The Hammers’ top scorers. Then, of course, members of the current squad also feature in seasons past. Of those, Michail Antonio, Tomáš Souček, Jarrod Bowen and Saïd Benrahma have all either won or shared the accolade of West Ham’s top Premier League scorer.
Will one of these current players top the EPL scoring chart for West Ham again in 2023/24? Will there be a new name to grace the club’s record books? Let’s have a look at three players who may finish with more goals than the rest this season.
Jarrod Bowen
Still only 26 years old, Jarrod Bowen is fast becoming a club legend. Since he joined West Ham from Hull City in 2020, the winger cum forward has scored 32 goals in 133 club appearances. Bowen was the top Premier League scorer for The Hammers last season with 12 goals.
Last season, England manager Gareth Southgate rewarded Bowen’s good club form with his first four England caps. The Hammers star is also included in the current national squad for the matches against Australia and Italy. Bowen’s prolific start to the 2023/24 EPL season warrants this inclusion. He’s West Ham’s early frontrunner for top scorer with five goals in his first seven games.
Michail Antonio
Michail Antonio first experienced EPL football in 2015/16 after signing for West Ham from Nottingham Forest. He scored eight league goals in that first season and has added a further 55 since in a Hammers career spanning 235 top-division matches.
Antonio made his Jamaican national debut in 2021 and has scored three times in 12 international appearances so far. The 33-year-old forward has finished as top scorer for The Hammers in three different seasons since signing. He already has two league goals in this season’s league campaign.
James Ward-Prowse
James Ward-Prowse signed from relegated Southampton in the recent summer transfer window. The 28-year-old, capped 11 times by England, scored 49 times in 344 league appearances for his former club. Since arriving at the London Stadium, the midfield playmaker known for his free kicks is already a favourite among Hammers fans.
Ward-Prowse has two league goals in a fledgling West Ham career spanning only seven appearances. While scoring consistently for Southampton, he was unfortunate to play for a team spending most of its time on the back foot. In David Moyes’ Hammers unit, he will likely find goalscoring opportunities, and offensive free kicks, easier to come by.
What Do The Bookies Think?
If you believe the odds on offer at some of the UK’s newest betting sites, West Ham’s goalscoring heroes won’t challenge as the EPL’s top scorers. Despite this, Jarrod Bowen’s fine start will likely make the bookies sit up and take notice if his scoring continues.
Based on the overall scoring odds, West Ham’s top EPL goal scorer should be either Bowen or Michail Antonio. The average odds quoted are 150/1 for Bowen and 200/1 for Antonio. No other Hammers player features in the odds list, but Ward-Prowse will get opportunities. Tomáš Souček and Mohammed Kudus, with seven goals between them in all competitions this season, also warrant a mention.
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