Manchester City’s perennial talisman Erling Haaland scored his 50th goal on his 50th Premier League appearance at the Etihad Stadium in a devastating performance against Manchester United Sunday which left Pep Guardiola awestruck.

The Catalan coach dropped to his haunches in disbelief shortly before the hour mark when Haaland, having scuttled around United’s befuddled goalkeeper Altay Bayındır, conspired to hit the post. However, Guardiola was among the first to celebrate his striker’s brilliance on either side of that uncharacteristic scuff.

The second half of the first Manchester derby of the season was not yet 10 minutes old by the time Jérémy Doku slipped Haaland behind United’s backline. Faced with the onrushing Bayındır, the in-form Norway international daintly scooped the ball into the far corner.

Just 15 minutes later, Haaland was again played through into one-on-one battle of wits and wills with United’s custodian, opting to simply slot his second and City’s third of the afternoon into the bottom corner.

Haaland’s brace took him up to a staggering half-century of Premier League home goals on just his 50th appearance in the competition at the Etihad. Only Alan Shearer has hit that landmark figure in fewer home games—it took the Newcastle United icon 47 outings, per Opta.

That record underscores how relentless Haaland has been following his arrival at City in 2022, but Guardiola insisted that his star man is hitting a new vein of ruthless form. “Erling has been incredible since the start but this season he is better than ever,” City’s manager gushed.

“I would say better than the treble year. He’s dynamic and I don’t judge him for the clearance, we want him to score goals and to help us.”

Haaland will have to rack up plenty more braces if he is to match his form from that aforementioned 2022–23 campaign. During his debut season in English football, City’s new frontman plundered a sickening 52 goals in 53 appearances across all competitions. Dixie Dean, Everton’s legendary forward from the 1920s, is the only player in English football history to enjoy a more prolific season—the aerially gifted centre forward needed just 41 games to amass 63 goals in 1927–28.

City’s opening four matches of the new campaign have brought Haaland five goals. Even if he can maintain his form and fitness, he will struggle to surpass Dean’s pre-war heroics. However, Haaland’s modern record of 36 Premier League goals in a single campaign could be under threat.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Better Than the Treble’—Erling Haaland Hits New Premier League Scoring Milestone.

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