The Erling Haaland goalscoring show resumes

Erling Haaland is back. “Was he ever away?” I hear you ask.

The former Borussia Dortmund hitman shocked the world by failing to find the net in Manchester City’s 1-0 loss to Liverpool, a match which followed 90 minutes on the bench as Pep Guardiola rotated his squad in a Champions League clash away to Copenhagen. Hardly a crisis for Haaland, but a very quiet week given that we’ve been accustomed to him breaking records seemingly every few days this season.

Haaland breaking Premier League records right, left and centre

Since joining the Citizens, Haaland has become the fastest player in Premier League history to score two hat-tricks (five games), the fastest player in the Premier League to score three hat-tricks (eight games), the fastest player to score 10 Premier League goals (six games) and the first player to score in his first four away games in the Premier League. He’s also set a new club record for scoring in consecutive matches (10).

Having netted just once in two outings since a hat-trick in the Manchester derby, the Norwegian’s goalscoring form has tailed off ever so slightly, which seems ridiculous to say. In truth, it was always going to be almost impossible to maintain, but two goals against Brighton on Saturday suggest the respite for Premier League defences is over already.

Haaland has now netted 22 times in 15 matches for City, including 17 in 11 Premier League fixtures. He has another 27 matches to find the six goals required to match the tally reached by last season’s top goalscorers, Mohammed Salah and Son Heung-min, while he’s already just a goal short of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Michael Owen and Dwight Yorke, who shared the league’s top scorer award in 1998-99.

Haaland on course to score 59 Premier League goals in 2022-23

17 goals in 11 games equates to roughly 1.55 goals per match. If Haaland were to maintain his current scoring rate and plays every league game between now and the end of the season, he would end the campaign with 59 goals. The highest ever tally in a 38-game season is 32, set by Salah in 2017-18.

Looking further ahead, in order to break Alan Shearer’s all-time Premier League record of 260 goals, Haaland, on current form would need to play around 168 times in the competition, which works out at just under four-and-a-half seasons. Factor in injuries, suspensions and rest games, and let’s call it five.

Could Haaland stay at Manchester City or leave for Real Madrid?

What are the chances of the striker sticking around in Manchester for that long? Rumours have been rife for weeks about a possible clause in his contract which would allow him to join Real Madrid, or perhaps even Barcelona, in the summer of 2024. This week, the player’s own agent, Rafaela Pimenta, refused to deny that this clause existed and claimed that his client would become soccer’s first ever billion-dollar player.

But she also hinted that Haaland would be open to extending his contract at Manchester City until 2027, which, you guessed it, would see him complete five seasons at the club. Watch out, Alan Shearer.