Best Premier League Forwards of 2020-21 Season

Another exciting season of the Premier League has come and gone and like always, forwards took the center stage. It’s fun to speculate about strikers who’ll eventually end up as top scorers in the league but when it comes to the Premier League, predictions and speculations are often proven wrong as there are many exciting new faces among each season’s best forwards as well as some of the usual suspects.

As such we have tried to list some of the

best Premier League forwards of 2020-21 season

below. These forwards have to provide so much more than goals for their team because the Premier League demands it, perhaps more than any other league in Europe. So we have tried to not only consider the goals that these forwards scored but also consider their assists and the overall positive influence they’ve had over their teams’ performances. Now let’s see who is on this list:

Best Premier League Forwards of This Season

While our list of best Premier League forwards of this season takes the number of goals these players have scored into account, it is by no means a top scorer list, as that list have several midfielders in it as well.

Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal)

The 2020-21 season was perhaps one of the worst seasons Arsenal have had in the Premier League history and while there aren’t many positives for Arsenal fans to take away from this season, the emergence of their young stars, like Saka and Smith-Rowe who were led in the attack by Alexandre Lacazette, may be the only thing that gives them a bit of hope for the upcoming season. the French forward by no means set the league on fire with his goals but his goals were all vital as were his contributions to Arteta’s overall game plans, if there was one!

, who had won Ligue’s top scorer award against rivals such as Edinson Cavani and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, came to Arsenal with high expectations but Laca failed to deliver on them as he never got to the levels he showed at Lyon. This was mostly due to the fact that none of the managers that have coached him at

believed in him and despite playing regularly he was never the main man for Arsenal and it seems he has finally grown into the role of a support striker this season.

While his inconsistency remains his biggest weakness, Lacazette has managed to brings others into attack through link-up play, ball interceptions and occasionally assisting his teammates. He has scored 13 goals and assisted 2 more this season and has the lowest amount of game time (1931 minutes) amongst our

best Premier League forwards of 2020-21 season

, which shows that were he to be trusted more by Arteta, Laca might’ve had a far better season.

With one year remaining on his contract, this may very well have been Lacazette’s last season at Arsenal and while the season was a letdown for Arsenal in general, on a personal level at least, Lacazette delivered and now he could go into the next season with a positive mindset.

Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)

With Rashford’s 17 goals last season in the Premier League, many thought that the young England international would take his numbers even higher this season but what many failed to notice was that 6 of his goals in the previous season came from penalties and since he is no longer on penalty duty at

, his numbers have understandably dropped. Although he has made up some of that loss of goals by providing several assists to his teammates.

Rashford and Martial both scored 17 goals last season and for a while it seemed that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had found his perfect forward line and could, with the addition of a world-class center forward, challenge Manchester City for the title. while they ended up somewhat challenging for the title and came 2nd in the league, United’s forward line didn’t exactly light up the league with the only exception being

, whose non-penalty goals remained the same as last season.

With 11 goals and 9 assists, Marcus Rashford has been one of the best Premier League forwards of 2020-21 season and Manchester United’s best forward. Granted, United’s forwards didn’t do much last season and their top goal scorer, top assister and best player ended up being their midfielder and playmaker, Bruno Fernandes but Marcus Rashford did well enough to give England fans much hope before the Euros.

Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)

Last season’s Golden Boot winner and Premier League’s usual top goal scorer contender, Jamie Vardie, has underperformed this season by his own standards but even now, his personal standards are so high that he is still one of the best Premier League strikers of 2020-21 season. although Vardy performed well in the first half of the season as was expected of him but his form dropped considerably in the 2nd half of the season as did his team’s,

, who lost out on a Champions League spot once again in the final week of the season.

started the first half of the season on the great form he was on from the last season. his partnership with James Maddison backed by Harvey Barnes proved lethal and abled Leicester to even top the league table at some point but as the season progressed and January neared Maddison’s injuries started piling up and Leicester had to change their tactics to accommodate for that fact and as a result Vardy’s role shifted to that of a somewhat support striker, with Kelechi Iheanacho helping him in goal scoring duties.

With 15 goals and 9 assists, Jamie Vardy is Leicester City’s top assist provider and top goal scorer. The former England international scored more than half his goals (8) from the penalty spot which is double the amount he did last season. at 34, Jamie Vardy may be showing his age as his goal scoring rate is dropping but he has shown that he is capable of changing up his playing style to help Leicester anyway he can. Vardy is undoubtedly one of the best Premier League forwards of 2020-21 season but whether he has another season of performing at this level in him, remains to be seen next season.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton)

When the 2020-21 season started, perhaps not even

himself, expected him to be one of the best Premier League forwards of 2021 but the young England international was a welcome surprise to both Everton and England fans. Much like Jamie Vardy however, Calver-Lewin’s goal scoring engine was firing mostly in the first half of the season and his form, as of Everton’s form dropped severely in the second half of the season.

With Ancelotti’s first full season as Everton’s manager, he looked to bolster

’s attack but instead of bringing in big-name strikers, Ancelotti chose to trust Calvert-Lewin who had a sort of break-out season in 2019-20 and scored 13 goals. Calvert-Lewin paid Ancelotti’s trust in kind by taking the league by storm from week 1. Calvert-Lewin managed to score 8 goals in the first 5 weeks of the Premier League, which included two hat-trick and eventually got called up to England, where he managed to score on his debut against Wales.

But with Everton dealing with a lot of injuries to their creative players like James Rodriguez and with Calvert-Lewin himself losing out 5 matches due to his injuries, his form, as of his team’s, were not consistent enough for them to mount any challenge. Dominic Calvert-Lewin ended up scoring 16 goals as Everton secured the 10th position in the league.

While it was a disappointing season for Everton fans, especially their great form at the start of the season, Dominic Calvert-Lewin himself had a great season and was certainly amongst the best Premier League forwards of 2020-21 season.

Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)

Ollie Watkins is one of those players who has paid his dues at various levels of English football to reach the place he has today. The 25-year old, came to Aston Villa at the start of the season, fresh off winning the Championship Golden Boot at Brentford and many doubted that a Championship-level player and goal scorer could make it in the Premier League but Watkins proved them wrong in the most spectacular fashion and became one of the best Premier League forwards of 2021.

Having been a proven goal scorer as well as a playmaker at League Two’s Exeter City and Championship side Brentford,

came to Aston Villa with high expectations and a club-record fee of £28 million and pretty soon he delivered on those expectations by scoring a perfect hat-trick and assisting once against Liverpool as

absolutely destroyed the reigning champions in a 7-2 victory. He managed to also score against the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham as well.

Although Watkins experienced a dry spell after starting the season in such amazing fashion, he ended up finishing the season on a high note by scoring 14 goals. he also showed his more creative side by providing 5 assists to his teammates. Watkins’ performances earned him his first call-up to the England squad and he ended up scoring on his England debut with his first shot on goal.

Since becoming one of the best Premier League forwards of 2020-21 season, Watkins has also been named in England’s 30-man squad for the Euros and there is a good chance he will be in the final 23-man squad as well.

Patrick Bamford (Leeds United)

Much like his team,

, Patrick Bamford was one of the welcome surprises of the 2020-21 season by being amongst the

best Premier League strikers of 2020-21 season

, especially since the 27-year old was no stranger to Premier League football with spells at Crystal Palace, Norwich and Burnely, all of which were severely unsuccessful as he never managed to score even a single goal. But it seems that Bamford really polished his skills at Middlesbrough and Leeds United at Championship level because he was a totally different player this season.

While no one denied

’s talents throughout his career, it was apparent that the unsurety he felt about his parent clubs, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea, as they sent him on multiple loan spells, was hurting his career. So when he finally got the chance to settle in at Middlesbrough, his performances markedly improved and soon he transferred to Leeds United where he continued to show his goal scoring prowess.

Bamford ended up scoring 16 goals at Championship in the 2019-20 season as Leeds secured a promotion to Premier League and much like Ollie Watkins he was doubted by everyone as whether he could be a Premier League-level player, especially considering his prior poor record in the league.

But Bamford proved everyone wrong as he became the focal point in Marcelo Bielsa’s extremely attacking side and managed to score 17 goals and provide an impressive 7 assists as well. His performances helped Leeds United finish 9th in the league and Bamford himself became one of the best Premier League forwards of 2020-21 season. although surprisingly he wasn’t part of England’s Euro 2020 squad, Bamford could look forward to proving himself even further next season.

Son Heung Min (Tottenham)

We recently highlighted how Son Heung Min has been one of the

for a while and maybe ever but Son’s achievements this season goes even further as he is truly one of the

best Premier League forwards of 2021

. The

winger was once again excellent this season despite his team’s shortcoming and proved why he is considered one of the best wingers in the world.

Since his arrival at Premier League in 2015 from Bundesliga’s Bayer Leverkusen,

has consistently gotten better every season. he won the 2020 Puskas award for the magnificent solo goal he scored against Burnley last season and strengthened his partnership with Harry Kane in Spurs’ attack even further to the point that it seemed almost telepathic. The duo became unstoppable as they seemed to score only when the other one was assisting. And they scored bags of goals!

Barring Harry Kane, who was this season’s top goal scorer, top assist provider and possibly best player, Son has been perhaps the 2nd best player this season as he scored 17 goals and assisted 10 times. However, Tottenham had another underwhelming season as it seemed that these two were the only ones who provided goals.

Son was one of the best Premier League forwards of 2020-21 season and with the strong possibility Kane leaving Tottenham in the summer, he might want to move in order to hit his personal best and win trophies.

Mohammad Salah (Liverpool)

Honestly at this point who is even surprised by

being one of the best Premier League strikers of 2020-21 season. the Egyptian has proven himself time and time again and has consistently shown why he is considered to be one of the world’s best players. while Liverpool had a severely underwhelming title-defense season, Salah’s goals and assists were just enough to get Liverpool over the line and secure them a Champions League spot on the last day of the season.

Fresh off the 19 goals he scored in the 2019-20 season, helping

to their first ever Premier League title, there were high expectations of him and Liverpool as they went into the 2020-21 season. and while Salah certainly delivered on those expectations, other Liverpool players like Mane and Firminho, didn’t. for a while it seemed that if Salah wasn’t scoring goals in a game, Liverpool was not going to score a goal either which points out the massive role Salah’s goals played in Liverpool picking up points this season.

With 22 goals and 5 assists, Salah was certainly the only Liverpool player who could hold his head high and be proud of his performances in what was a disappointing season for the Reds. He was in the race for the top scorer award but lost out to Harry Kane as his rival scored a goal on the last day of the season and Salah didn’t. despite this he is definitely one of the

best Premier League forwards of 2020-21 season

as he has been every season since he joined Liverpool in 2017. 

Harry Kane (Tottenham)

With how impressive Harry Kane’s career at Tottenham, on a personal level, has been over the past few seasons, it was hard to imagine that he could top his prior achievements but Kane had very much the plans to do so as he not only showed how impressive of a goal scorer he is but also what a creative and complete forward he has become, someone who has won both the top scorer award and the top assist provider for the first time since Andy Cole did it in the 1995-96 season.

The importance of

in Tottenham’s emergence as a supposed big club in the Premier League cannot be understated. Since his Premier League debut for Spurs in 2012, Kane has gone on to score 166 goals in 242 matches and has won 3 Premier League Golden Boots, being on par with Alan Shearer and one behind Thierry Henry. Only thing that has been missing from his career has been team trophies and with the strong possibility of him leaving after the Euros, Tottenham fans are worried that their Tottehnam’s supposed golden era will come to an end.

While Kane had several injury problems last season, losing almost half the season because of a thigh injury, he scored an impressive 18 goals and when the 2020-21 season started he picked where he left off last season, expect this time around he had added creativity to his playing style as well. the aforementioned partnership he had with Son, made them two of the

best Premier League forwards of this season

, with both players assisting each other on numerous goals.

Kane himself took that great form even further as he provided 14 assists, becoming the league’s top assist provider over world-class playmakers such as Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes, and scored 23 goals becoming the league’s top goal scorer over Mohammad Salah. With him being the best Premier League forwards of 2020-21 season Kane will almost certainly win the Player of the Season award. How he does captaining England in the Euros and where he will go after the tournament will certainly be interesting to see in the summer!

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