Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is probably the most famous super-sub in Premier League history, but he boasts neither the most goals off the bench nor the best goals-per-minutes ratio as a substitute.
There is something hard to fathom about goalscoring substitutes. After all, if a player keeps on scoring after coming off the bench, why not play him from the start?
Some of the players on this list were indeed starters most of the time, but there is also a unique band of strikers who for whatever reason seem to be more effective when introduced later on…
10. Darren Bent – 13 goals, 107.8 mins-per-goal
“My missus could have scored that one.”
Everybody remembers Harry Redknapp’s infamous quip after Bent missed a sitter for Tottenham, but he was a much more reliable goalscorer than the former Spurs boss would have you believe, scoring more than 100 Premier League goals.
Even at Spurs, where he failed to really establish himself amid competition from the likes of Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane and Roman Pavlyuchenko, Bent he still finished as the club’s top scorer in 2008-09.
He made 60 appearances in the Premier League as a substitute, scoring 13 times, and his ratio of one every 107.8 minutes puts him ahead of Andy Cole, Tore Andre-Flo and Michael Owen, who also scored 13 goals as subs.
9. Edin Dzeko – 13 goals, 89.1 mins-per-goal
Several players on this list were underrated and written off as ‘merely goalscorers’ as if that’s such a bad thing.
Dzeko was once described as “rubbish at football but brilliant at goal scoring” by Manchester City superfan Noel Gallagher – and the Bosnian will always be cherished for coming off the bench to really take the biscuit with two late goals in City’s 6-1 demolition of Manchester United at Old Trafford.
8. Victor Anichebe – 14 goals, 147.4 mins-per-goal
The surprise name on this list. Anichebe only scored 27 Premier League goals as his career, but more than half of those came after he had entered the fray as a substitute.
In total, in 107 appearances as a substitute for Everton, West Brom and Sunderland, Anichebe contributed 14 goals and seven assists.
7. Peter Crouch – 16 goals, 178.1 min-per-goal
Crouch has never been a prolific goalscorer, never managing 15 in a single Premier League season, but he’s a player that managers have always loved to introduce from the bench as a Plan B.
There are certainly plenty of people who believe England should have kept him in the picture for longer for that…
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