Bryan Mbeumo Opens Door to Man Utd Milestone Not Achieved in 12 Years

A double salvo against Brighton took his goal tally to four in nine Premier League games.

Bryan Mbeumo bagged a brace of goals at the weekend. / James Gill/Danehouse/Getty Images

Manchester United forward Bryan Mbeumo hasn’t ruled out scoring 20 Premier League goals in his first season with the club, refusing to set himself a target or limit.

Mbeumo hit that figure in the league for Brentford last season, more than double his best-ever previous top-flight tally (nine). That prompted United to eventually commit to a £71 million ($93.9 million) transfer during the summer in a bid to boost the goalscoring threat in the squad.

The Cameroon international impressed from day one, causing Arsenal plenty of trouble with his movement in the first Premier League game of the season—albeit not finding the net. Mbeumo managed a maiden United goal against Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup in late August and now has four more in nine league appearances to his name, scoring twice last time out.

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Asked after that game against Brighton & Hove Albion—which marked a third successive league win for Ruben Amorim’s side only days after winning two in a row under the Portuguese coach for the first time—if he could score 20 in the league again, Mbeumo was open to the challenge.

“I always try to aim big in everything that I do,” he said. “I try not to set limits on myself and on what I can reach. I am just going to work on that as much as possible.

“Everyone wants to fight for as high as possible,” the player added, noting United’s sudden climb up the table—only two points separate them from second-place Bournemouth. “We want to win as many games as we can and that is what we are going to try and do.”

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‘It Hasn’t Been Easy’

A new-look forward line is starting to click. / Molly Darlington/Getty Images

In addition to spending big on Mbeumo, United agreed to pay £62.5 million for Matheus Cunha and up to £73.7 million for Benjamin Šeško in a complete overhaul of the team’s forward line, the biggest weakness from last season that needed addressing.

Now that Cunha has found the net in a United shirt, producing a high-quality opener against Brighton, all three forward are among the goals. There is optimism about what that trio can achieve in the remaining season ahead, with United now able to focus solely on the Premier League until January, but Mbeumo insists it has taken work behind the scenes to start clicking like this.

“It hasn’t been easy obviously because we all came this year and we tried to make the connections in training,” he said. “It hasn’t been easy coming into this environment, a big club, the expectations are not easy to handle but with the teammates, everyone is helping me, helping the team, helping the new players and I think that was very important.

“We are very happy for [Cunha]. We are growing the link-ups between [myself, Cunha, Šeško]. Of course, the pressure is off [Cunha’s] shoulders with the goal, he was waiting for it.”

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Man Utd Top Scorer by Season—Premier League Era

If Mbeumo can go on to score 20 Premier League goals in 2025–26, he would be the first Manchester United player to reach that single season milestone since Robin van Persie (26) did it in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final campaign in charge more than a decade ago.

Throughout the Premier League era, it has been relatively uncommon that a single United player has hit 20 in the league in a given season. In the early years of dominance, it tended to be that the goal load was spread across multiple players in the team, while more recently there has been a limited output overall. Last season was the first time that no player managed double figures in the league.

Robin van Persie was the last Man Utd to score 20 goals in a single Premier League season. / Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Season	Top Scorer	Premier League Goals
1992–93	Mark Hughes	15
1993–94	Eric Cantona	18
1994–95	Andrei Kanchelskis	14
1995–96	Eric Cantona	14
1996–97	Ole Gunnar Solskjær	18
1997–98	Andy Cole	15
1998–99	Dwight Yorke	18
1999–00	Dwight Yorke	20
2000–01	Teddy Sheringham	15
2001–02	Ruud van Nistelrooy	23
2002–03	Ruud van Nistelrooy	25
2003–04	Ruud van Nistelrooy	20
2004–05	Wayne Rooney	11
2005–06	Ruud van Nistelrooy	21
2006–07	Cristiano Ronaldo	17
2007–08	Cristiano Ronaldo	31
2008–09	Cristiano Ronaldo	18
2009–10	Wayne Rooney	26
2010–11	Dimitar Berbatov	20
2011–12	Wayne Rooney	27
2012–13	Robin van Persie	26
2013–14	Wayne Rooney	17
2014–15	Wayne Rooney	12
2015–16	Anthony Martial	11
2016–17	Zlatan Ibrahimović	17
2017–18	Romelu Lukaku	16
2018–19	Paul Pogba	13
2019–20	Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford	17
2020–21	Bruno Fernandes	18
2021–22	Cristiano Ronaldo	18
2022–23	Marcus Rashford	17
2023–24	Bruno Fernandes, Rasmus Højlund	10
2024–25	Bruno Fernandes, Amad Diallo	8

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