Erling Haaland scored his 50th goal for Manchester City this season, which also happened to be his 34th Premier League goal of his rookie season, with a single sweep of his menacing left foot.
With his injury-time goal against Arsenal in the middle of the week, Haaland had already broken the mark of 32 goals previously held by Mohamed Salah (2017/18) in a 38-game Premier League season. In Manchester City's ensuing game on Sunday afternoon, the flaxen-haired Norwegian required less than three minutes to blast a low penalty past Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
Before Haaland even officially joined Manchester City last summer, he had already hastily scribbled over the numbers. The 22-year-old was measured at a height of 195.2m while undergoing his physical as part of a £51 million deal from Borussia Dortmund. Haaland sat on a bed in the treatment area and said, "Oh wow, I've grown, almost one centimeter!"
The advantage of a 42-game league season allowed Andrew Cole (although he was known as Andy at the time) and Alan Shearer to score 34 goals. For Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United, Cole looted his gluttonous haul in 1993–94. As is frequently forgotten in the mists of time, Cole also finished the year as the Premier League's top assist producer.
Shearer equaled that total a year later when Blackburn Rovers won the Premier League. Shearer played every game of the season, missing just eight minutes in the entire course of his career, making it the only league season of his career in which he did so. In addition to having fewer games to equal Shearer's joint record due to the division's subsequent restructure, Haaland has only made 30 appearances this season due to a few minor injuries.
In the Premier League's three-decade history, 25 teams made their first 30 appearances in the league with fewer than 34 goals scored. When a player's goalscoring production is compared to entire clubs, he has undoubtedly surpassed the limitations of the Premier League era today.
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