What Premier League scoring records has Erling Haaland already broken?
After five games, the Manchester City striker already has nine goals, two hat-tricks and two Premier League scoring records.
Anyone who thought the old cliché about needing time to adapt to a new league applied to Erling Haaland has been thoroughly disabused. The Manchester City striker needed just 38 minutes to score his second consecutive Premier League hat-trick against Nottingham Forest as City strolled to a 6-0 win. In his previous outing against Crystal Palace, he scored three in 19 minutes. Haaland has already scored more goals in five games than Norwich managed last season in 20 and has more strikes to his name in 2022-23 than 15 Premier League sides, including Chelsea and Manchester United. In his first month in England, Haaland has already broken two Premier League records and, most observers agree, he is very likely to break the rest of them as well if he remains at City for long enough.
Haaland started the season with two goals against West Ham and has only failed to find the net once, against Bournemouth. The Norwegian already has nine goals and broke two records against Forest: he is the scorer of the highest number of goals in August in the history of the Premier League, surpassing the record held jointly by Micky Quinn and Sergio Agüero, who both managed eight. Until Wednesday, Demba Ba held the record for the fewest games required to score two Premier League hat-tricks with 21. Haaland needed only five.
Haaland excites Owen, Lineker
Manchester City fans have taken Haaland, whose father Alf-Inge played for the club, to heart. Meanwhile, commentators in England have been reaching for the plaudits and even Alan Shearer’s Premier League record of 260 goals looks vulnerable, if Haaland stays fit and stays in Manchester. “This fella is going to break virtually every goalscoring record there is,” tweeted Michael Owen after the final whistle on Wednesday. “He’s too big, too fast and he finishes perfectly in front of goal. And he plays on a team that generates dozens of chances. All you need is to avoid injury.”
Another legendary English striker, Gary Lineker, noted during half time of the Forest game that Haaland had only needed 90 minutes to score six goals, during the second 45 against Palace and the first 45 against Forest. “Haaland has scored a hattrick in the last 2 halves of football he’s played. Nuts,” Lineker wrote, while also suggesting that at this rate, the Norwegian will catch Shearer before Spurs striker Harry Kane does.