At the time of writing, there have been 10 players who have scored more than 100 goals for Chelsea (in all competitions). Looking at the goal stats for the current squad, we can’t see anyone joining that illustrious club any time soon. Not least because no player seems to actually stay at the club for more than a few seasons at the moment, such is the huge turnover of personnel.
That said, there’s no doubt the west London club have had their fair share of sharpshooters over the years. In this article, we’ll first give a statistical snapshot of the top 10 Chelsea scorers, then we’ll give a little more detail about the top four, those club icons who have scored more than 150 goals for the Blues. Rather harshly, that means we’ll be excluding both Roy Bentley and Peter Osgood, both of whom netted exactly 150 times in a Chelsea shirt!
Chelsea Players with 100+ Goals
| Player | Years at Chelsea | Appearances (inc. Sub) | Goals | Goals to Games Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Lampard | 2001–2014 | 648 | 211 | 0.33 |
| Bobby Tambling | 1959–1970 | 370 | 202 | 0.55 |
| Kerry Dixon | 1983–1992 | 420 | 193 | 0.46 |
| Didier Drogba | 2004–2012
2014–2015 |
381 | 164 | 0.43 |
| Roy Bentley | 1948–1956 | 367 | 150 | 0.41 |
| Peter Osgood | 1964–1974
1978–1979 |
380 | 150 | 0.39 |
| Jimmy Greaves | 1957–1961 | 169 | 132 | 0.78 |
| George Mills | 1929–1943 | 239 | 125 | 0.52 |
| Eden Hazard | 2012–2019 | 352 | 110 | 0.31 |
| George Hilsdon | 1906–1912 | 164 | 108 | 0.66 |
We will look at the top four in more detail shortly, but it’s worth doffing our caps to a couple of those who don’t quite make the top five but who had excellent records for Chelsea none the less.
Jimmy Greaves
Only the seventh-highest scorer for Chelsea, but of the players to have scored more than 100 goals for the club, Greaves has by far the best goals to games ratio. He also scored 268 goals for Tottenham (and a few for other clubs like AC Milan and West Ham). In other words, he was one of the great goalscorers of his – or indeed any – era. He holds the record for the most goals in a season for Chelsea (43 in 1960/61) and bagged an impressive 44 in just 57 games for England.
Peter Osgood
Osgood’s goals were often crucial for Chelsea, indeed he scored in the FA Cup final replay against Leeds United in 1970 (Chelsea’s first FA Cup triumph) and in both the initial final and the replay of the 1971 European Cup Winners’ Cup when the Blues got the better of the mighty Real Madrid to claim their first European trophy.
George Hilsdon
With a goals to games ratio that isn’t a million miles behind Greaves, he has the record for the most goals scored in a single game for Chelsea with the six he plundered against Worksop Town in an FA Cup match in 1908. Hilsdon also scored 14 goals for England… in just eight games!
1) Frank Lampard – 211 Goals in 648 Games
As you can see, club legend (as a player… not a manager!) Frank Lampard tops the Chelsea scoring charts with his impressive haul of 211. One of only two players to have netted more than 200 goals for the Blues, Lampard is also the only player to have scored more than 100 times for the club from midfield (Tommy Baldwin is the next-best midfielder with 91 goals from 239 games).
As well as the overall scoring record, he also scored more top-flight league goals (147) and more FA Cup goals for Chelsea (26) than anyone else. In addition, he’s sixth on the list of all-time Premier League scorers (with 177, including the goals he scored with West Ham and Manchester City). A stat Lampard certainly won’t be shouting about, however, relates to his unsuccessful stints as Chelsea manager: he has the lowest winning percentage of any manager who’s been in charge for 10 or more games with just 9% (in his second spell at the club). But let’s focus on the goals!
2) Bobby Tambling – 202 Goals in 370 Games
With a goal every 0.55 games, Bobby Tambling was a prolific and effective striker who scored more than 20 goals in five of his 12 seasons at Chelsea. He holds the record for the most league goals scored for Chelsea with 164 (but 35 of those were scored when the Blues were in the second tier in the 1962/63 season, hence Lampard having the record for top-flight strikes).
Despite his goalscoring exploits, Tambling only won one trophy with Chelsea: the League Cup in 1965. But that’s one more than Jimmy Greaves managed at the club!
3) Kerry Dixon – 193 Goals in 420 Games
For a player who scored 25 or more goals in four seasons for Chelsea, Kerry Dixon perhaps didn’t quite get the plaudits he deserved. His haul of 28 league goals in his first season for the Blues (1983/84) helped them win the second division and thus gain promotion to the top flight.
The next season, Dixon finished as the joint-top scorer in the First Division along with a certain Gary Lineker (who played for Leicester City at the time). Dixon still holds the record for the most League Cup goals for Chelsea, with 25 in total including eight in the 1984/85 campaign.
4) Didier Drogba – 164 Goals in 381 Games
The powerful and dynamic Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba had a significant impact on Chelsea and indeed English football. He joined the club from Marseille in 2004 and was one of the first signings made by the new Blues boss Jose Mourinho. It proved an inspired signing and he was pivotal in Chelsea’s (and Mourinho’s) success. Drogba’s goals helped fire the Blues to the Premier League title in the Portuguese boss’s first season in charge, Chelsea’s first top-flight title for 50 years!
Drogba outlasted Mourinho at the club and won a total of four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and the Champions League with the Blues. He so often scored when it really mattered, including the equalising goal against Bayern Munich in the 2012 Champions League final (which Chelsea went on to win on penalties).