Erling Haaland set Manchester City’s single-season record for goals in a Premier League season as his 27th goal helped guide a 4-1 defeat of Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
Man City remains two points behind Arsenal, who has a match-in-hand it will play at midweek against Everton. City and Arsenal meet again at the Etihad Stadium on April 26.
Records can last for decades, leaving a mark that seems to never go away and is just out of reach for those who want to break them.
And then, as a result of the efforts of a single player, they may suddenly regain their fallibility. Erling Haaland’s rampant approach makes several Premier League goal scoring records, some of which have stood for nearly 30 years, appear increasingly shaky.
The 22-year-old Norwegian has scored at an alarming rate since joining Manchester City last summer, already breaking several league records.
During City’s 4-1 victory over Bournemouth on Saturday, he scored once more by prodding the ball into the net after latching onto Phil Foden’s cross.
He now has 27 Premier League goals, tying a record that no other Manchester City player has ever achieved in a single season.
The previous record was held by Sergio Agüero, who scored 26 goals in 33 games between 2014 and 2015. To surpass that number, Haaland only needed to play 24 games.
After Saturday’s victory, City manager Pep Guardiola told Sky Sports, “His impact has been incredible.”
We adore him, and he has set numerous goals. We found him more today. We are overjoyed because he poses such a significant threat to our adversaries.
Haaland’s record book appears to be set to get even taller with 13 league games left to play this season.
He is only seven goals away from matching Andy Cole and Alan Shearer’s total of 34 Premier League goals, which was set in 1993-94 and 1994-95, respectively, when 42 games were played in a season.
With 32 goals between 2017 and 2018, Mohamed Salah holds the record for most goals scored in 38 games.
Haaland is on track to break both of these records, one of which is older than him, at his current scoring rate.
In contrast, he has scored 33 goals for City in 33 games across all competitions this season outside of the Premier League.
However, there are some records that, at least for this season, appear to be beyond Haaland’s reach.
With 60 goals scored in just 39 games during the 1927-1928 season, Everton striker Dixie Dean holds the all-time top-flight record in English football. Lionel Messi’s 2011/12 record of 73 goals scored across all competitions will also stand.
Manchester City looked like they had once again asserted their dominance over the rest of the Premier League on Wednesday when they defeated Arsenal on the Gunners’ home field to return to the top spot on goal difference. This was just three days before they lost to Forest. However, Saturday turned out to be a day of ups and downs as Arsenal overcame two one-goal deficits to defeat Aston Villa 4-2 at home and Man City lost a 1-0 lead in the 84th minute. This week in the UEFA Champions League, Erling Haaland was held without a goal for the fifth time in six games (all competitions) and Kevin De Bruyne was unable to play because of illness. This resulted in a 1-1 draw against RB Leipzig on Wednesday, which was yet another lead that was lost.
On the one hand, no team this season has allowed more goals than Bournemouth (44 in 23 games). On the other hand, since Scott Parker was fired following the 9-0 loss to Liverpool (along with the 3-0 loss to Arsenal and the 4-0 loss to Man City), the Cherries have only given up 28 goals in 19 games. However, issues persist at the opposing end of the field, where Bournemouth haven’t scored multiple goals since November 12. In fact, since their 3-0 victory over Everton in their final game before the World Cup break, they have only scored three times in eight games.
