Aston Villa, Coventry City, Norwich City and Leicester City are just a collection of the English sides that Dion Dublin – a four-cap England international – turned out for in his goal-getting career. Supporters, on the whole, are not well-acquainted with how deadly he was as an English frontman. It’s probably because of his sparse spells for the English national team.

He led lines up and down the country in a decade – the 1990s – when English strikers were all the rage. Given the abundance of striking talent at the country’s disposal during that time period, though, bagging 20 Premier League goals in a single campaign didn’t guarantee you a place in the Three Lions squad.

The 90s – famous for in-your-face shirt designs; some garish, others trendy – was a hotbed for line-leading talent from England and the aforementioned Dublin, now popular for showing us stairs on daytime television, has spoken to The Telegraph to name the top ten from that decade. Spoiler alert: taking advantage of its emphasis on showbiz, he included himself.

10

Dion Dublin

What Dion Dublin said: “I genuinely believe if I’d been given the chance to play more for England I would have scored a lot of goals. There was maybe a slight prejudice towards the bigger names and bigger clubs because I spent four years at Coventry, but it’s really hard to stake a claim for the No 9 shirt when you’re up against that bunch. What a group of strikers.”

Dublin, who played for a quartet of English sides – Cambridge United, Coventry, Manchester United and Villa – during the nineties, opted for himself as the tenth-best English striker of that decade. Marred by injuries during his spell at Old Trafford, Dublin once hammered goals in for fun: he netted 61 league goals across a four-season stint with Coventry.

A cult hero in the Aston Villa echo chamber, three of the ex-striker’s four England caps were won during his spell at Coventry, but he was at his talismanic best at Villa Park. The two-time Premier League winner – in 1992/93 and 1993/94 with the Red Devils – accrued 58 strikes in 189 games for the Birmingham outfit, thus proving that he was an elite marksman, goals or not, in the 90s.

9

Chris Sutton

What Dion Dublin said: “Sutty is probably the striker who was most similar to me in this list. He played at centre-forward and centre-back and wasn’t really a flamboyant player but just got the job done time and again under the radar. He was unassuming. He scored a lot of goals but didn’t really shout about it. That SAS partnership with Shearer at Blackburn was lethal.”

A key member of Blackburn Rovers’ memorable SAS frontline, how talented Chris Sutton actually was as a footballer is sometimes shifted to the side thanks to his post-career punditry. He and Alan Shearer (more on him later!) were the figureheads in Rovers’ Premier League-winning season in 1994/95 and later moved to Stamford Bridge to join Chelsea before the turn of the millennium.

Things never really took off in west London, and he was soon out of the England squad for good. But when at the peak of his powers at the aforementioned Lancashire club, his terrific form begs the question: how did he only pick up a mere one cap – a 12-minute cameo against Cameroon – for his nation, England?

8

Stan Collymore

What Dion Dublin said: “You know what, if Stan had been able to apply all the traits that he had at the same time consistently and found that happy medium to his football and life, he’d have been the best out of any of these. He had everything. He could annihilate you. I really like Stan. There just wasn’t that awareness around mental health back then. It was very much, “Just f—— get on with it”.”

A truly unstoppable force when at the races, Stan Collymore was a striker who played for a myriad of top sides in the 90s – and that includes Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Put simply, many may raise their eyebrows at the three-cap England international being above Sutton and Dublin, but the latter has his reasons.

Had it not been for his whirlwind career, Dublin believes that he had all the tools to be the best English striker of his generation. Fast, strong, silky and the way he finished chances with unfathomable ease – there was very little Collymore didn’t have in his locker and his City Ground stint is one for the ages.

7

Teddy Sheringham

What Dion Dublin said: “Cultured, unfazed, pure vision. He was a cool footballer that just made it look so simple and easy and seemed to do everything in slow motion but always got it done. He’d prepared before the ball had even reached him and his touch was that good that he’d always gain a couple of seconds.”

A clever and intelligent striker, Teddy Sheringham featured for five clubs in the 90s – and that includes the most famous stint of his career, at Old Trafford between 1997 and 2001. His play style was perfectly suited to international football; and the partnership he struck up with Shearer at Euro 96 was nothing short of telepathic.

Sheringham, whose header assisted that Ole Gunnar Solksjaer winner in the 1998/99 Champions League final (watch it above!), played with plenty of splendour and poise and his lowly record of 11 England goals in 51 outings proved that he wasn’t all about scoring goals. In fact, he was equally adept at creating a myriad of top-tier chances for his teammates for club and country.

6

Les Ferdinand

What Dion Dublin said: “Les was the best header of the ball I’ve ever seen. He was only 5ft 11in but his leap, his bound from a standing jump was remarkable. So aggressive, so strong, so good. He was the reason I didn’t go to the 1998 World Cup!”

Akin to a bulldozer, Les Ferdinand broke onto the football scene with Queens Park Rangers late in the 1980s, and he later turned out for Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Newcastle United and the like in England’s top flight. Internationally, he was named in the England squads for Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup, and he scored five times in 17 caps for his nation.

The apex of Ferdinand’s powers came during the mid 90s as he plundered 15 Premier League goals in five seasons on the trot – and his move to Newcastle in 1995 saw him produce some of the best football of his career. Even before that, in three of the first four campaigns of the rebranded Premier League, he notched north of 20 strikes every season.

5

Michael Owen

What Dion Dublin said: “I remember marking Owen for Villa at Anfield once and giving myself 15 yards – 15 yards – and we still got to the ball at the same time. It was blistering pace. He won the Ballon d’Or. That tells you everything.”

The solitary Ballon d’Or winner on Dublin’s star-studded list, Michael Owen was one of the deadliest frontmen in the Premier League in the infancy of his career. One of the first teenage footballing sensations to really burst onto the scene, the striker-turned-pundit lit up England’s top flight in the infancy of his career and he did the same for England at the 1998 World Cup.

Although silverware evaded him in a collective sense, the ten-year period in question was fruitful for Owen individually: he won the Premier League Golden Boot in 1997/98 and 1998/99 with a glut of goals. A striker you could rely on to do the business at the sharp end of the pitch, Owen’s record of 40 goals in 89 international outings isn’t to wince at either.

4

Andy Cole

What Dion Dublin said: “I played at centre-back at times later in my career and I didn’t know how to mark him. He was possibly the hardest one of them all to mark – you never knew where he was. He’d never be in the same place. His movement was outstanding.”

Although Andy Cole struck fear into defences up and down the country on a week-by-week basis, there’s a compelling case to suggest that he is one of the most underrated players in Premier League history: he was a five-time winner of the Premier League and, throughout his stint at Old Trafford, he plundered an eye-catching number of 121 strikes. Interestingly, four of his five title wins came in the 90s.

Nicknamed ‘Cole the Goal’ for how seamlessly he could bypass goalkeepers with an array of finishes, it was not just a guarantee of goals that the Nottingham-born bagsman provided – but hitting the back of the net was his bread and butter. In fact, his 34-goal haul in 1993/94 was the most of any player in a single season until a certain Erling Haaland tipped up.

3

Robbie Fowler

What Dion Dublin said: “Robbie was amazing at making situations work for him. He was so calculated on the pitch. He’d measure things up and the next thing the ball is in the net.”

‘Calculated’ is the word that Dublin opted for when describing the former Liverpool striker, who averaged in excess of 20 strikes a season between 1993/94 and 1996/97. A reliable source of goals across his career in England’s top flight, Robbie Fowler’s career-best return came in the 1995/96 campaign when he picked up 28 goals for the Merseysiders.

It’s not unfair to say that Fowler – widely regarded as one of the best players to never win the Premier League – was criminally underused at international level. The archetypal hitman struck just seven times for England, but don’t let that cloud over how influential he was among English strikers in the 90s. The early years of his career were in a clinic in finishing.

2

Ian Wright

What Dion Dublin said: “Wrighty is possibly the best finisher out of the entire lot and by that I mean the amount of different finishes he had in his armoury – left foot, right foot, headers, goals from impossible angles, incredible improvisation. He was so quick. He’s a brilliant person, but he was a nasty b****** on the pitch!”

Loved and adored by many for his post-retirement punditry career, many forget just how rampant Ian Wright was in front of goal during his career. A late bloomer of sorts, Wright’s time in the England set-up was surprisingly short given that he won a mere 33 caps for his nation, though that was largely down to him and Terry Venables seldom seeing eye to eye.

He was a joy to watch at club level, though, and his move to Arsenal in 1991 – which eventually saw him become one of the club’s most legendary players of all time – propelled him to household fame. Wrighty scored goals for fun, and that’s evidenced by the fact he reached the 30-goal milestone on four occasions during his spell at Highbury. A truly great centre-forward.

1

Alan Shearer

What Dion Dublin said: “For the sheer amount of goals it has to be Alan first. I’m not saying he’s the best Premier League footballer, but to score that many at a time when there were so many top centre-half pairings was almost perverse.”

Alan Shearer would’ve let out a sigh of relief when Harry Kane left Spurs for Bayern Munich in the summer of 2024 as it meant that his all-time record – 260 goals in the Premier League – was safe for the time being. Southampton was the club where the record-setting talisman started his career, but his most memorable stint came between 1996 and 2006 for Newcastle United.

You could argue that this decade was Shearer’s. A gold standard goal-getter, he captained the Three Lions from 1996 to 2000 as he carried the nation tournament-to-tournament. Although success evaded during his time with the armband, his goal-to-game ratio is utterly enviable – for club and country.