Sport
What is the highest scoring Premier League game ever?
The new Premier League season has seen goals galore, with matches like Manchester United’s 6-1 home loss to Tottenham likely to live long in the memory. But even Aston Villa’s 7-2 thumping of champions Liverpool and Southampton losing 9-0 to Manchester United, aren’t among the top-scoring games in the history of the Premier League. So what is the highest scoring Premier League game ever? Here are the five game that had the most goals in the Premier Legue.
Arsenal 7-3 Newcastle United, 29 December 2012
Four games sit in joint second place behind the highest scoring Premier League game of all time. The first is Arsenal vs. Newcastle from 2012.
Newcastle’s defence handed out a late Christmas present to Arsenal with Theo Walcott helping himself to a hat-trick in a crazy game at Highbury.
Remarkably, for a game with 10 goals, it was only 1-1 at the break and Newcastle equalised twice more before Arsenal ran away with it in crazy scenes.
Playing as a central striker rather than his usual berth on the wing, Walcott not only took home the match ball but provided two assists for the Gunners with Olivier Giroud netting a late double.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski were both also on the scoresheet for Arsene Wenger’s side, while Demba Ba hit a brace for the Magpies in an unforgettable game.
Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal, 28 August 2011
Without a doubt one of the most famous matches in Premier League history, a ruthless Manchester United side produced a devastating display to down a callow Arsenal XI 8-2 early in the 2011-12 season.
Wayne Rooney’s hat-trick was the highlight for United as they inflicted what was Arsenal’s worst defeat in almost 100 years. A raft of injuries and suspensions were no excuse for an awful showing from Wenger’s team, who had Carl Jenkinson sent off to add to their misery.
Ashley Young hit two fantastic strikes with Danny Welbeck, Nani and Park Ji-sung also netting. Arsenal’s goals came from Walcott and Robin van Persie, who later fired United to the title but had been denied by goalkeeper David de Gea from the penalty spot with the score at 1-0.
Tottenham 9-1 Wigan Athletic, 22 November 2009
Narrowly missing out on the record for the biggest win in Premier League history, which stands at 9-0, Spurs obliterated Wigan with Jermain Defoe, one of the best players to never win a trophy, in unstoppable form in front of goal.
Defoe found the net five times in the second half as Wigan fell apart, the striker becoming only the third player to score five times in a Premier League game. He joined Alan Shearer and Andy Cole in an elite club.
Although Wigan were also smashed 8-0 at Chelsea and 5-0 at home to Manchester United, conceding an amazing 79 over the season, they still survived by a comfortable six-point margin.
Tottenham 6-4 Reading, 29 December 2007
A couple of years earlier, Defoe was also on the scoresheet as Spurs beat Reading 6-4 in a ridiculously high scoring game at the old White Hart Lane.
But it was Dimitar Berbatov who stole the headlines on this occasion with the Bulgarian hitting four goals including the opener from close range.
Reading actually led at 2-1 and 3-2 thanks to goals from Kalifa Cisse, Ivar Ingimarsson and Dave Kitson but Spurs’ firepower then proved far too much for the Royals to cope with.
“Defensively, we made some bad decisions,” said Reading’s manager Steve Coppell. What an understatement. Reading went down on the last day of the season despite beating Derby 4-0.
Portsmouth 7-4 Reading, 29 September 2007
The highest scoring game in the history of the Premier League took place at Fratton Park in 2007, as Portsmouth and Reading played out an incredible 11 goal thriller.
Reading were certainly the team to watch that season, having shipped seven goals at Portsmouth three months earlier to set a record for the highest scoring Premier League game of all time.
Benjani scored a hat-trick with his first two goals putting Pompey 2-0 up and, though Stephen Hunt replied just before the break, there were few signs of the carnage that was to come.
Kitson made it 2-2 after David James’ error but Hermann Hreidarsson struck twice to give Portsmouth a cushion. James saved Nicky Shorey’s penalty to somewhat make amends.
Benjani, Niko Kranjcar and an Ingimarsson own goal made sure of the points for Pompey but Shane Long’s reply made sure there was a record up for grabs.
And when Sulley Muntari converted from the penalty spot and Sol Campbell scored an own goal deep into added time, there was a new landmark set for the league’s most prolific single match.
You could earn up to £100 (or currency equivalent) in bonus funds by joining Colossus with our New Player Bonus. Click here to join the action.
