Best striker in the world?
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Manchester City are on the quest to win their fifth consecutive English Premier League title and they are in ominous form for their rivals. City are renowned for finishing the season in blistering form but they’ve looked polished at the start of the 2024/25 campaign.
After winning the Community Shield against rivals Manchester United, City are the only side in the league to have picked up maximum points from their opening four games to establish a two-point lead at the top of the table. Pep Guardiola’s men travel to Arsenal next weekend as they face their main title rivals and they could move five points ahead of the Gunners with a win. Unsurprisingly, Erling Haaland has been pivotal with the striker in unbelievable goalscoring form with nine goals in four games – which is record.
Erling Haaland breaks another Premier League record
Haaland has scored nine of City’s eleven league goals this season and he’s looked unstoppable at points. The Norwegian kickstarted the campaign with a vital goal in the opening day win over Chelsea before scoring consecutive hat-tricks against Ipswich Town and West Ham United. Haaland’s seven goals in the opening three league games of the season was a record for any player across the top five leagues since 2000 and he reached another milestone on Saturday.
As the graphic above illustrates, Haaland’s brace in the 2-1 win over Brentford ensured he moved ahead of Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney for most goals in the opening four games of a Premier League season. Rooney bagged eight in four games at the start of the 2011/12 season but Haaland has secured yet another goalscoring record. The 24-year-old features twice more in the top ten list after netting six goals in the opening four games in 2022/23 and 2023/24. Haaland’s nine goals this season is also substantially more than any player across the top five leagues with Mason Greenwood’s five goals in four games ranking second.
