Haaland is absolutely phenomenal!

22/12/2025 07:00:00 TrophyTracker

The double against West Ham last weekend enabled Erling Haaland to surpass Cristiano Ronaldo’s Premier League scoring record. Pep Guardiola’s Man City is living off Haaland’s goals in the title race with Arsenal.

A common way to assess a striker’s ability is by looking at his goal tally. Haaland is doing an excellent job as Man City’s goal hunter, having scored 19 goals before Christmas, joining the list of Premier League strikers like Andy Cole, Kevin Phillips, and Luis Suarez who have reached this milestone.

Haaland’s goals are lifting Man City forward, covering up issues in their playing style.

Still explosive even without De Bruyne

He has been the opener in 10 different Man City matches this season, including the recent 3-0 win over West Ham. West Ham is also the favorite team of the 25-year-old striker, against whom he has scored 11 goals. Haaland is just 3 goals behind his previous season’s tally and has nearly half the total goals of the 2022-23 season (36 goals). It’s very difficult to catch Haaland in the Premier League Golden Boot race since the next highest scorer, Brentford’s Igor Thiago, only has 11 goals.

But the figure that truly astonishes everyone about Haaland is that he has exceeded Cristiano Ronaldo’s 103 goals for Manchester United. The Norwegian striker has 104 goals and needed only 114 matches to reach this milestone, while Ronaldo required 236 games across two spells at MU to score 103 goals.

When De Bruyne, Haaland’s best partner at Man City for many seasons, moved to Napoli this summer, former player Paul Merson predicted Haaland would sooner or later lose his impressive scoring form. However, Haaland has proven to be even more dangerous with the new attacking structure Guardiola has created at the Etihad. He can easily create scoring chances himself and is also willing to contribute to Man City’s overall play. Both were proven in the win over West Ham, where Haaland scored a brace and assisted Reijnders’ goal. The Norwegian striker is learning to blend with new teammates like Rayan Cherki and Reijnders, alongside Phil Foden’s resurgence and readiness to support Haaland when needed.

Reviving Man City

It’s no exaggeration to say Haaland’s goals have significantly masked Man City’s tactical problems this season. Compared to previous years, Guardiola’s team is playing less convincing football in many ways. Organized passing plays have gradually been replaced by a more direct and pragmatic style. It’s common for Man City to play cautiously and protect their lead after scoring early. This has resulted in nail-biting wins such as 3-2 against Leeds and 5-4 against Fulham.

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