Chelsea Football Club has been a mainstay in English football for years, becoming particularly successful during the 21st century. So many great players have played for the Blues, but who has scored the most goals out of these legends?
Who is Chelsea’s all-time top scorer? Frank Lampard is Chelsea’s all-time top scorer in all competitions, with 211 goals in all competitive competitions. Bobby Tambling is second with 202 and Kerry Dixon in third with 193 goals.
For Chelsea fans, it cannot be too surprising to hear that Frank Lampard is the club’s all-time leading scorer. Lampard is a London legend and is one of the best Chelsea players in history, despite starting his career with a different London team, West Ham. After his transfer, Lampard would go on to play 429 times for the Blues.
How is Frank Lampard Chelsea’s all-time top scorer?
There may be some surprise that Lampard is the top scorer for Chelsea because he is not an attacker. Lampard played in midfield for his entire career. Despite this, he has scored more goals for Chelsea than legendary strikers like Didier Drogba, Kerry Dixon and Bobby Tambling.
This is because one of the things that Lampard could do best is find space in the box. He made a career out of phenomenal late runs into the box, with Chelsea attackers finding him more often than not. It meant Lampard was a very high-scoring midfielder as he was clinical in front of goal.
Opposition defenders were often worried about the attackers so much that there was space in the box for Lampard to make a late run and he really took advantage of that, becoming one of the best box-to-box midfielders in Premier League history. While this is the main reason Lampard was able to score a lot of goals for Chelsea, he still needed chances to do this.
Lampard’s longevity and his brilliant injury record meant he played a lot of games for Chelsea in his time with the Blues. In the 13 seasons Lampard spent with Chelsea, he played more than 40 games in all of those seasons but one, where he still managed 32. This longevity and brilliant scoring ability are why Frank Lampard is Chelsea’s all-time leading scorer.
Who is Chelsea’s all-time top scorer in the league?
While Frank Lampard is Chelsea’s top scorer in all competitions, he is not the team’s all-time leading scorer in the league. Legendary Blues striker Bobby Tambling is the team’s all-time leading scorer in the league with 164 goals in 302 games. There will certainly be some fans who have not heard of Bobby Tambling.
Bobby Tambling’s career
Having shown his striking ability from a very young age, Tambling was signed by Chelsea despite interest from Reading and Wolves. Tambling was quickly moved through the ranks of the Chelsea team, making his first team debut at just 17 years old. On his debut, Tambling managed to score just 14 minutes in.
After Jimmy Greaves left the side, he became the team’s striker and was given the captaincy at just 21 years old. He was the team’s top scorer when they were promoted from the Second Division in 1963, with Tambling scoring 35 goals in 40 games in the second tier.
In the First Division, Tambling consistently scored more than 15 goals a season, with two campaigns in the First Division where he scored more than 20 goals. Tambling was important to the team in winning their first major knockout trophy, scoring in the 1965 League Cup final.
Tambling became Chelsea’s all-time leading scorer, a record which was surpassed by Frank Lampard in 2013. He would likely still be the teams leading scorer if he had not been moved out wide towards the end of his Chelsea career, eventually leaving the team in 1970 to join Crystal Palace where his career stuttered due to injuries.
It seems unlikely that we will see someone overtake his record in the league for quite a while as the record has already stood for more than 50 years, with Lampard coming close with 147 league goals, tied with Kerry Dixon for second.
Chelsea’s highest goal scorer last season
Last season was a mixed one for Chelsea as they did manage to reach two domestic finals but disappointingly lost both games. Their attack struggled last season despite some very big spending in the summer. It was part of this big spending that actually spurred Chelsea’s attack.
Romelu Lukaku was Chelsea’s highest goal scorer last season. He finished the campaign with 15 goals in all competitions which was the highest for the Blues. Lukaku had eight goals in the Premier League, with 3 in the FA Cup, 2 in the Champions League and 2 in the FIFA Club World Cup.
In the league, Mason Mount was Chelsea’s top scorer last season, He finished the season with 11 Premier League goals, the only Chelsea player to finish in double digits for goals for the Blues, showing the struggles their attack had last season.
Who is Chelsea’s top scorer 2020-21
In all competitions, Tammy Abraham and Timo Werner were the leading goal scorers for Chelsea, both finishing with 12 goals. Both players scored six goals in the Premier League in 2020-21, with Abraham getting four in the FA Cup, one in the EFL Cup and one in the Champions League.
Werner got just one goal in the FA Cup and one goal in the EFL Cup. He was much more prolific in the Champions League, finishing with four goals which was the most for Chelsea in the 2020-21 campaign in the competition.
In the Premier League, neither of these players were Chelsea’s top scorers. It was actually central midfielder Jorginho who was the team’s top scorer in the Premier League. He finished the season with seven goals, one more than Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Timo Werner. The large majority of Jorginho’s goals came from the fact that he was Chelsea’s penalty-taker in the league.