THE 2024-25 Premier League season proved to be one to forget for Manchester City. A 3rd place finish signified their lowest placing since the 2016-17 campaign, and across the board, they failed to win silverware in a major competition for the first time since that very same campaign, when excluding the Community Shield.
But so far during this newest campaign, City look to be somewhat heading in a better direction, winning both of their last two competitive outings over the course of the last week after prior setbacks against Brighton and Tottenham.
The first of those victories saw them defeat fierce rivals Manchester United with ease last Sunday, running out comfortable 3-0 victors in the end, before the Citizens then got the better of Napoli in their UEFA Champions League league phase opener during Kevin de Bruyne’s return to the Etihad Stadium.
What’s significant about both of those matches? Erling Haaland found himself on the scoresheet each time, and it’s through his fantastic early season form that City again look to be potential title winners this campaign.
So far this season, Haaland has once again proved himself to be the best striker in the Premier League. With his world-class finishing and bully-like style of play, the Manchester City forward has already netted five goals in the competition – the most of any player.
That’s also the case when looking further afield across Europe’s big-five leagues as a whole, with only Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane able to match his goalscoring tally to this point of the season.
But it’s when you delve a little deeper that it’s clear to see that the Norwegian international is getting back to his very best, and as such, he’s continuing to break record after record along the way.
As well as his goalscoring exploits, Haaland also tops the chart in the Premier League this season for shots with 19 – already seven more than any other player in the competition – and shots on target, recording eight to this point.
He’s additionally managed to generate chances for himself worth 5.74 xG in total. That tally is more than double any other players in England’s top-flight and when looking across Europe’s top-five leagues once more, it again beats out all other individual competitors with relative ease.
What’s even more impressive, however, is that compared to his prior seasons in the English top flight, Haaland’s numbers are up across the board.
With a glance to his per 90 statistics across that time, his 1.32 goals per 90, 5.05 shots per 90 and 2.12 shots on target per 90 figures are all at the highest level that he’s ever recorded in a campaign for the Citizens.
His 1.52 xG per 90 tally is also at its highest level in league action for Manchester City, and thanks to that, Haaland has already broken a number of records this season.
At the weekend, he climbed up to 44th spot in the Premier League’s all-time scoring list, joining Oliver Giroud on 90 goals with his brace against Manchester United.
Those goals have come through just 101 matches in the competition, now giving him a goals per game ratio of 0.96, by far the strongest amongst all players to net 50+ times in the competition and substantially ahead of Sergio Aguero in second spot on that list (0.83).
But his form has not been limited to just league action and he also made history in the UEFA Champions League this midweek. With his strike against Napoli, Haaland reached 50 goals in fewer appearances than anyone in the history of the competition, smashing the previous benchmark set by Ruud van Nistelrooy, who managed the same feat in 62 matches.
Next up? Well, he and his side face their toughest challenge of the season so far as they travel to north London to face title rivals Arsenal.
With four goals across six league meetings with the Gunners, it’s not as if Haaland struggles in this fixture, especially as in that time, he’s also notched two assists too, only managing more against his side’s Manchester rivals (3). Despite that prior form, he’ll need to be at his very best to help his team grab a statement victory at the Emirates.
If not, Pep Guardiola could go five games without a top-flight league win against an opponent for the very first time and in the process, Mikel Arteta could become the first manager ever to go five league games unbeaten against Guardiola.
Whether Manchester City win or not this upcoming weekend, one thing is for sure: in order for them to be challenging at the very top of the Premier League come the end of this campaign, Erling Haaland will need to be delivering his very best form in front of goal consistently over the next nine months or so.
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