The records Erling Haaland could still break this season if he pulls his finger out for Manchester City

Matthew Stead
Erling Haaland celebrates his record-breaking goal

The record for most goals in a Premier League season has been shattered but there are many more landmarks Erling Haaland can set his sights on this campaign.

 

Most matches scored in during a Premier League season

The records in a 42-game and 38-game season respectively are 26 and 24; Haaland is on 23

With the overall record for most goals in a Premier League season obliterated, the more granular landmarks can be targeted. And the Nordic persecution of Andy Cole and Mo Salah is likely to continue.

Both unsurprisingly hold the respective 42 and 38-game records for most games scored in during a Premier League season. Cole’s 34 strikes were spread across 26 matches in 1993/94, while Salah netted in 22 different fixtures, including scoring a single goal and no more in 18 2017/18 Liverpool games.

Harry Kane has actually already equalled the record of 24 this season. Haaland can pull clear of them and still match Cole by scoring against Chelsea, Brighton and Brentford.

 

Most teams scored against in a Premier League season

The record in both a 42-game and 38-game season is 17; Haaland is on 16

Strikers tend to get two bites of the other 19 cherries in a Premier League season, yet the most opponents a player has scored against in any top-flight campaign since 1992 is 17. Again, Cole and Shearer achieved that tally in their seminal seasons.

Since then, Ian Wright (1996/97), Robin van Persie (2011/12) and Salah (2017/18, of course) have scored against all but two of the teams on offer in a season. Wright missed out Sunderland – whom he faced only once – and Man Utd, Van Persie could not check off Fulham or Manchester City, and Salah forgot Man Utd and Swansea on his list.

Haaland did most of the legwork for this record in the first half of the season, with Liverpool the only club Manchester City have faced twice without the striker breaching their defences – and the Norwegian missed one of those games through injury. He could still break or at least equal it against Chelsea on May 20 and Brentford on May 28.

 

Most hat-tricks in a season

The record is five; Haaland is on four

Nice and easy. Alan Shearer scored hat-tricks against Coventry, Nottingham Forest, West Ham, Bolton and Tottenham in his debut Premier League season for Newcastle. Haaland has trebles against Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Man Utd and Wolves. One more to equal the record; two to break it.

 

READ MORE: The ridiculous stats of Erling Haaland in 2022/23

 

Most goals in a Champions League season

The record is 17; Haaland is on 12

With five goals in the group stages and a further seven during the knockout phase, Haaland is almost certain to collect his second Champions League Golden Boot. The closest player still left in the competition is Vinicius Junior, who has six goals for semi-final opponents Vinicius Junior.

That tie with Real Madrid might slow Haaland down somewhat but he did net in both legs of the quarter-final with Bayern Munich and Carlo Ancelotti’s side have been curiously leaky recently when not facing Chelsea. Half a dozen goals to beat them and grab a consolation in an overthought final would conquer Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2013/14 numbers.

 

Most goals in a Champions League season for a Premier League club

The record is 12, jointly held by Haaland

Just one more goal in Europe before the campaign is out would edge Haaland ahead of Van Nistelrooy, whose dozen goals in 2002/03 took Man Utd to the Champions League quarter-finals.

 

Most combined goals and assists in a Premier League season

The records in a 42-game and 38-game season respectively are 47 and 44; Haaland is on 43

That selfish sod Haaland has only directly set up seven Premier League goals while having 35 laid on a plate for him. Arsenal succumbed to his creative brilliance in April; Bernardo Silva was the beneficiary of a lovely Norwegian flick against Newcastle at the start of March; Ilkay Gundogan converted a delightful driven cross against Aston Villa in February; two stunning passes sent Phil Foden on his way to a Manchester derby hat-trick in October; Gundogan again benefitted from some glorious hold-up play against Bournemouth in August.

It seems likely that Shearer and Cole, who both scored 34 goals and 13 in their aforementioned record-shattering 42-game campaigns, and 38-game leader Thierry Henry, who scored 24 and assisted 20 goals in 2002/03, will be caught.

 

Most goals in a debut English top-flight season

The record is 38; Haaland is on 36

The most goals scored in a debut Premier League season used to be the 30 plundered by Kevin Phillips for Sunderland in 1999/2000. Haaland has shattered that but this record belongs to the Black Cats regardless.

Sunderland had been challenging for the First Division title with semi-regularity after the First World War, but Dave Halliday was intended to help them take that next step. And to his credit, the striker did his bit: he scored at least 35 goals in each of his four league seasons with the club, starting with 38 in a productive debut campaign. Yet Sunderland did not win their next title until 1936, seven years after Halliday left for Arsenal.

Halliday is still one of just two players to finish as the outright top scorer in both England and Scotland’s top divisions, alongside the earlier David McLean. He is also the quickest player ever to reach 100 goals in England’s top flight, taking 101 games. Haaland will have his eye on breaking that 38-goal barrier first, then focus on the century if he sticks around long enough.

 

Most goals in an English top-flight season in all competitions

The record is 63; Haaland is on 52

A record which was hardly mentioned until it recently dawned that Haaland might be pretty good, this one hangs tantalisingly in the balance between him definitely beat it and it being a step too far.

Only one player has ever scored more goals in all competitions of a single English top-flight season than Haaland’s 52 so far in 2022/23. The pre-war numbers of Tom Waring, Vic Watson and friends were considered to be untouchable even after the Premier League bar set by Salah and Van Nistelrooy (44 for both) was raised.

There remains a final boss of ludicrous goalscoring. Dixie Dean’s 60 league goals in 1927/28 won’t be touched but the legendary striker rather embarrassingly scored just three times during Everton’s run to the FA Cup fourth round.

Haaland has at least five and as many as six games to score the 11 goals necessary to catch him, dependent on whether they reach the Champions League final or not. It will be close.

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