Erling Haaland surpasses Cristiano Ronaldo as City cruise to victory

Another day, another goalscoring milestone for Erling Haaland. The Manchester City star scored a brace against West Ham United on Saturday, taking his Premier League tally to 104 goals in just three and a half seasons.

In doing so he moves past Cristiano Ronaldo in the all-time PL scoring charts. CR7 scored 103 goals for Manchester United in the English top flight, doing so in 236 appearances.

By contrast, Haaland needed just 114 games to reach the same figure, fewer than half as many. Speaking after City’s victory over West Ham, City boss Pep Guardiola paid tribute to Haaland’s form.

“Erling scores goals all of the time but today his pressing was [important]. Thanks to him. Him, Phil [Foden], and Nico O’Reilly. It provoked the long balls and that’s very, very good.”

Earlier this month Haaland scored against Fulham to bring up his 100th Premier League goal, joining an elite club of goalscorers. He still has a long way to go to catch all-time leader Alan Shearer (260 goals) or Harry Kane (213) but Haaland’s goals-per-games record suggest that he could soon be challenging those names.

Haaland recently became the fastest player to 100 Premier League goals, breaking the record set by Shearer in 1995. The former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United star needed 124 games to reach triple figures in the Premier League, while Haaland needed just 111 outings.

“I don’t want to say the words, but when you’re a striker for Man City, you should be delivering great numbers and that’s my job,” Haaland said after reaching 100. “People should criticize me if I don’t. That’s normally what people do, so in the end ... I should deliver.”

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