Nicolas Anelka: Premier League career in numbers

Nicolas Anelka is the most underrated century scorer in Premier League history, and the reason is the story everyone tells about him. The 22.3 million teenager who sulked his way out of Arsenal, the problem child who drifted through six clubs, masks a career that peaked late and scored relentlessly: 125 goals and 48 assists in 364 Premier League appearances across six clubs, a Golden Boot won at 29, and two separate seasons, a decade apart, that stand as his best. The nomad was also the late bloomer, and the numbers do not match the myth.

His Premier League career spanned 17 seasons, from a 17-year-old signing at Arsenal in 1997 to a final two-goal cameo at West Bromwich Albion in 2013/14. In between he scored 38 goals for Chelsea, 37 for Manchester City, 23 for Arsenal, 21 for Bolton, 4 for Liverpool and 2 for West Brom, in a transfer chain that cost just under 90 million in aggregate. No other Premier League century scorer spread his goals across as many clubs.

The Arsenal boy who became the 22.3 million man

Anelka arrived at Arsenal in 1997 from Paris Saint-Germain for 500,000, signed by Arsene Wenger at 17. Within a season he had won the Premier League and FA Cup double as a first-team regular, and in 1998/99, his first full season, he was Arsenal's top scorer with 17 league goals and won the PFA Young Player of the Year award. At 19 he was one of the best young forwards in Europe, and in the summer of 1999 Real Madrid paid 22.3 million to take him, at the time a world-record fee for a teenager.

The Arsenal fans who had watched him become the league's brightest young striker gave him the nickname Le Sulk as the transfer dragged on. What gets lost in the nickname is that he scored 6 league goals from 26 games in the double season and 17 from 35 the year after, at 18 and 19 years old. The departure was framed as ingratitude; the underlying numbers were a teenager outscoring almost everyone in the league.

The European detour and the Manchester City years

At Real Madrid Anelka won the 1999/2000 Champions League, part of a star-studded side, but he never settled and returned to Paris Saint-Germain the same summer for 20 million. A loan at Liverpool from January 2002 brought him back to England, and in the summer of 2002 Manchester City paid 13 million, at the time a club-record fee, for a striker who would spend three seasons there.

Manchester City is the most underrated chapter of his career. In three seasons he scored 37 Premier League goals from 89 appearances, including 14 in his first full season and 16 in his second. His biggest single contribution to English football history came there: on 16 October 2004, in a 1-0 win at Maine Road, Anelka won an 11th-minute penalty after being fouled by Paulo Ferreira and scored it himself, handing Chelsea their only defeat of the 2004/05 season, the finest defensive campaign the league has ever seen. The same season he left City for Fenerbahce in January 2005, the deal worth 7 million as part of a chain that took him eventually to Bolton.

The Bolton revival and the Chelsea golden boot

Bolton Wanderers paid a club-record 8 million to sign him in August 2006, and Sam Allardyce called the fee an unprecedented amount for the club. Anelka repaid it immediately, scoring 21 Premier League goals in 53 appearances for a mid-table side, and in January 2008 Chelsea came back for him, paying a reported 15 million. He was 28, had been written off as a problem child for the best part of a decade, and was about to have the best two seasons of his career.

In 2008/09 Anelka won the Premier League Golden Boot with 19 league goals, the league's top scorer, winning the award on the final day at Sunderland with a goal from outside the area in a 3-2 win, finishing one clear of Cristiano Ronaldo. The following season he scored 11 goals in 33 league appearances as Chelsea won the title, part of a squad that also won the FA Cup twice in his years at the club. For a player whose obituary was written at 22, the Chelsea years were the proof that the talent had never gone anywhere.

The one blemish was the 2008 Champions League final in Moscow, where Anelka missed the decisive penalty in the shootout against Manchester United. It is the single most remembered moment of his Chelsea career, and it obscures the Golden Boot that followed a year later.

The career in numbers

Anelka's Premier League totals: 125 goals and 48 assists in 364 appearances. The club-by-club spread is the rarest shape of any century scorer: Arsenal 23 goals in 65 games, Liverpool 4 in 20, Manchester City 37 in 89, Bolton 21 in 53, Chelsea 38 in 125, West Brom 2 in 12. The 48 assists put him in a band with the best creative forwards of his generation, and the 90 million aggregate transfer cost made him, for years, the most expensive player ever assembled by transfer fees.

The pattern in the numbers is the opposite of the myth. His best two Premier League scoring seasons came a decade apart: 17 goals at 19 for Arsenal in 1998/99, then 19 at 29 for Chelsea in 2008/09. Most strikers who are difficult to manage decline after their early peak; Anelka's peak simply moved. He was the highest-scoring nomad the Premier League has produced, and the six clubs he scored for is a spread no other player with 100 or more goals matches.

Key takeaways

• Anelka scored 125 goals with 48 assists in 364 Premier League appearances across six clubs, the widest club spread of any century scorer.
• His best seasons came a decade apart: 17 goals at 19 for Arsenal, then a 19-goal Golden Boot at 29 for Chelsea.
• The penalty he won and scored for Manchester City on 16 October 2004 handed Chelsea their only defeat of the record 2004/05 season.
• At Chelsea he won a Premier League title and two FA Cups, scored 38 league goals, and missed the decisive penalty in the 2008 Champions League final.
• His career transfer chain totalled just under 90 million, from a 500,000 Arsenal signing to a 15 million Chelsea move.

FAQ

How many Premier League goals did Nicolas Anelka score? 125, with 48 assists, in 364 appearances for six clubs: Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Bolton, Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion.

What did Anelka win at Chelsea? A Premier League title (2009/10), two FA Cups, the 2008/09 Golden Boot, and a Champions League runners-up medal from 2008 after missing the decisive penalty.

Why is Anelka called Le Sulk? Arsenal fans coined the nickname during his transfer standoff before he joined Real Madrid for 22.3 million in 1999.

Did Anelka really end Chelsea's unbeaten 2004/05 season? Yes. He won and scored an 11th-minute penalty for Manchester City on 16 October 2004, the only defeat Chelsea suffered all season.