Michael Reid: Premier League’s Fastest to 50

WITH Erling Haaland currently sitting on 49 goals in his 47 Premier League appearances, the Norwegian is all set to not only break the record for fastest to reach 50 goals in the competition’s history, but to absolutely smash it.

Up next for Manchester City, with their star striker one goal away from the landmark, is the visit of Liverpool – one of two sides Haaland has faced in the Premier League without scoring (along with Brentford). From a Sky Blue perspective, there would be no better time for him to add another club to his Premier League goalscoring collection and bring up his 50^th goal in doing so.

Remarkably, a goal on Saturday would not only make Haaland the quickest to 50 in terms of appearances in the Premier League (48), but he would also be the ninth-youngest player to hit the milestone (23 years, 127 days). Sadly, even the phenomenon that is Erling Haaland can’t invent a time machine to go back in time and try break that particular record (held by Robbie Fowler at 20 years, 252 days), but to even be in the top 10 is a remarkable feat given the Norwegian was 22 when he made his competition debut.

But who are the current fastest players to 50 Premier League goals, whose records will soon look mediocre in comparison to Haaland’s?

1. Andrew Cole – 65 appearances

The current record holder is one Andy Cole, who reached 50 Premier League goals in his 65^th appearance.

And what a way to bring up his half century – Cole’s landmark goal was his fifth, yes 5^th, of a match against Ipswich for Man Utd in a joint-competition record 9-0 win in March 1995.

43 of Cole’s strikes came in 58 games for Newcastle, before his move to the Red Devils, where his five-star display against Ipswich took his tally to seven in seven for the club to bring up his 50.

He bagged 34 goals in his first Premier League season with Newcastle – newly promoted at the time. Yet another competition record Cole once boasted that was all too easily taken from him by Haaland, after he scored 36 for Man City in his very first season.

It’s worth pointing out, of course, that none of Cole’s 50 goals were from the penalty spot. Indeed, just one of the 187 he went on to score in the Premier League was a penalty (for Fulham v Birmingham in January 2005), which makes his record all the more impressive.

2. Alan Shearer – 66 appearances

No Premier League goalscoring record would be complete without a mention of the competition’s all-time leading scorer. Alan Shearer scored 260 goals in the Premier League, with the first 50 coming in his first 66 games.

That makes Shearer the current fastest to 50 for a single club (Blackburn), given Cole left Newcastle before he reached a half century. Another record that will soon be eaten up by Haaland.

Shearer had only started 60 of those 66 games too, and he boasted a minutes-per-goal rate of 106 after the game he recorded his 50^th (the first of two goals v Everton in September 1994). That’s the best mins/goal ratio of any player as of the game they scored their 50^th goal. Haaland is currently averaging 78 mins/goal.

3. Ruud van Nistelrooy – 68 appearances

Third on the list is ex-Man Utd forward Ruud van Nistelrooy. The Dutch striker reached his 50 against Newcastle in August 2003 in just 68 games.

van Nistelrooy is currently the fastest non-English player to hit 50 Premier League goals. Unfortunately for him, Erling Haaland being born in Leeds won’t stop the Norwegian international taking that record as well.

He is one of 11 players to score 50 goals in the Premier League for Manchester United – the most of any club – and is by far the quickest among that contingent. Eric Cantona comes closest, scoring his 50^th in his 101^st appearance for the Red Devils. At least that’s one record that, you’d think, is safe from the Haaland machine.

4. Fernando Torres – 72 appearances

In joint-4^th is Fernando Torres, who reached 50 goals in his first 72 Premier League appearances for Liverpool (63 starts). Before a certain Mo Salah (more to come from him), that was the fastest any player had reached the landmark for the Reds in the competition.

Like Cole, none of Torres’ first 50 Premier League goals were penalties, and he reached the milestone is some style – a 90^th-minute winner over Aston Villa in Liverpool’s final game of 2009.

His rate rather dried up after that – from 50 in his first 72, Torres would only go on to score another 35 goals in his final 140 Premier League appearances as injuries mounted and a £50m move to Chelsea didn’t work out as the Blues hoped in terms of league form.

It would be a major surprise if Haaland suffered a similar curtailment.

5. Mohamed Salah – 72 appearances

Last but not least in the current top five is Mo Salah, who equals Torres in reaching 50 goals in his first 72 Premier League appearances.

However, Salah would be outright fourth in the list if it weren’t for his short spell as a Chelsea player, where he scored just twice in 13 Premier League games for the club (6 starts).

For Liverpool only, Salah hit 50 in 69 appearances – making him currently the third-fastest to 50 for a single club in the Premier League (after Shearer and van Nistelrooy).

Salah is the only one of the current top five still playing, and while Haaland sits on 49 Premier League goals coming into the two meeting in Man City v Liverpool on Saturday, Salah is on 149. The Egyptian could become the 11^th player to reach 150 Premier League goals, equalling Michael Owen’s tally of 150 to sit joint-10^th in the competition’s all-time leading scorers.

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