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.
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.”
‘It Hasn’t Been Easy’
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.”
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.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Bryan Mbeumo Opens Door to Man Utd Milestone Not Achieved in 12 Years.
