Cristiano Ronaldo joins illustrious Premier League club with goal vs Arsenal

The Manchester United forward scored his 16th Premier League goal of the season during the game with Arsenal at the Emirates, bringing up a century in the English top flight

Cristiano Ronaldo has become the 33rd Premier League player to hit 100 goals after finding the net for Manchester United against Arsenal.

The 37-year-old moved to 99 strikes in the English top flight following his hat-trick against Norwich City at Old Trafford last weekend. He was then absent from the clash with Liverpool following the tragic news that he and partner Georgina Rodriguez had lost their baby son.

Ronaldo was in everyones thoughts on Merseyside, with all four sides of Anfield rising to applaud the Portuguese, with the Kop singing a spine-tingling rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.

And the forward was back in the United squad for Saturday’s trip to Arsenal for a game they must win to keep their slender top-four hopes alive. However, United got off to the worst possible start, finding themselves two goals down before the half-hour mark.

But with the game threatening to run away from the visitors, Ronaldo popped up in the box to bring United back in the game and in the process bring up his 100th goal.

Ronaldo looked destined to end his Premier League career with a tally of 84 goals from 196 games during the six seasons of his first stint at The Theatre of Dreams. But last summer, some 12 years after his departure, the footballing icon returned to the club, joining on a two-year deal from Juventus.

And although collectively it has been a desperate season for Manchester United, Ronaldo hasn’t lost his scoring touch and he is by far and away the club’s top scorer. In total he now has 16 league goals to add to the six he managed in just seven Champions League games.

And his latest sees him join an illustrious club of Premier League marksmen, which includes the likes of Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane. Ronaldo becomes the 11th player to have appeared for United reach the landmark and the first from any team since Liverpool striker Sadio Mane brought it up earlier this season.

His century of goals in 223 appearances in the Premier League, mean he has goals-per-game ratio of 0.45, which is slightly higher than his old team-mate Rooney at 0.42, but lower than the likes of Thierry Henry and Sergio Aguero, who achieved rates of 0.68 and 0.67 respectively.

Ronaldo, who is also the leading scorer in the history of men’s international football with 133 for Portugal, brought up the 60th hat-trick of his career during the win over the Canaries.

“Very happy with this win and for getting us back on track in the Premier League,” he posted shortly after the game.

“Like I said before, individual achievements are only worth it when they help us reach our goals as a team, and the 60th hat-trick in my career is so much more important because it brought us the 3 points.”