13 mindblowing stats from Erling Haaland’s insane start at Man City

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland is one of the most high-profile signings in Premier League history and it’s safe to say he’s living up to the hype already.

Haaland has set all kinds of goalscoring records in the Champions League and Bundesliga. But some questioned whether he’d be able to continue his ridiculous goalscoring exploits in the Premier League.

Any doubters have emphatically been silenced by the 22-year-old, who has scored nine goals in his first five appearances in the English top flight.

He notched a brace on his Premier League debut – both goals in a 2-0 victory away to West Ham – and has since scored back-to-back hat-tricks against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest.

“I think what he wants is to win the titles. This is my feeling of what he wants. If the records and goals help that then good,” Guardiola told reporters in his post-match press conference following City’s 6-0 win against Nottingham Forest.

“Records and goals don’t win titles, I think he wants to be part of that. When we bought Erling, everybody spoke about what he had done in the past.

“What we want to do is to help him continue what he has done in Norway, Austria and Germany. Hopefully he can continue to enjoy the game. I don’t want him to get niggles so we do substitutions otherwise he would score more goals, I am sure.”

Having joined the Premier League champions and a supporting cast of world-class creators, we’re pretty sure the sight of the giant Norwegian goal-machine lifting silverware will become a familiar sight. We’d be amazed if he doesn’t smash plenty more records in the coming months and years, too.

Here are 13 mindblowing stats behind the striker’s incredible start to life in the Premier League.

– In 30 years of the Premier League, only five other players have scored back-to-back Premier League hat-tricks. It’s only ever happened six other times. It’s taken Haaland just five appearances to manage it.

READ: The 6 players to score back-to-back Premier League hat-tricks: Haaland, Kane…

– In the German Bundesliga, Haaland averaged a goal every 87 minutes for Borussia Dortmund. In the Austrian Bundesliga, he averaged a goal every 62 minutes for Red Bull Salzburg. In the Premier League, he averages a goal every 43 minutes. Are we the farmers’ league?

– The Norwegian has set a new record for most goals in his first five Premier League appearances. He has nine. The previous record was held by Sergio Aguero and Mick Quinn (eight each).

– Harry Kane has scored eight goals in 26 Premier League appearances in the month of August. Haaland has surpassed that with nine in five.

– Haaland’s scoring stats were eerily similar to Aguero’s first few Premier League appearances: two goals on his debut, none on his second appearance, one on the third, a hat-trick on the fourth. Aguero notched a brace on his fifth appearance but Haaland went one better.

The goal that sealed a second hat-trick in two matches! ⚽⚽⚽@ErlingHaaland | #ManCity pic.twitter.com/qE6tyYPVk5

— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 31, 2022

– The previous fastest player to score two hat-tricks in the Premier League was Demba Ba in his first 21 appearances. Haaland’s smashed that record in 16 games fewer.

– He now has as many Premier League goals as Ballon d’Or-winning Chelsea glamour signing Andriy Shevchenko (via Duncan Alexander). He’s done it in 43 matches and 2156 minutes fewer.

– Haaland is currently outperforming his expected goals (xG) by a rate of 100%. His nine goals have come from just 4.5xG (via FBref).

– His nine goals have come from 22 shots in total and 11 on target. That’s a conversion rate of 40%. Only two of his shots have been saved.

– He’s only completed 44 passes in total – that’s 4.9 for every goal he scores and two for every shot he takes.

– The striker has registered just 85 touches to date. That’s a goal every 9.4 touches and a shot every 3.8. Over a third (29) of his total touches have come in the opposition penalty area while just four per cent have come in City’s defensive third.

– So far he’s averaging a goal every 43 minutes. To put that in context, when Mohamed Salah broke the Premier League goalscoring record with 32 goals in 2017-18, he averaged a goal every 91 minutes and had a third as many goals (three) at this stage of the campaign.

– Haaland’s goal or assist average so far is one every 39 minutes. To put that in context, in Luis Suarez’s unstoppable 2013-14 season, he notched 31 goals and 28 assists, averaging one every 57 minutes. In Thierry Henry’s historic 2002-03 season (24 goals, 25 assists), he averaged a goal contribution every 67 minutes.

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