It says a lot about the extraordinary consistency of Erling Haaland that even as he reached yet another milestone this weekend, scoring his 100th Manchester City goal in a riveting title-race game against Arsenal, it didn’t really feel like the headline news at all.
A clip of the Norwegian taunting Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta stole the attention at full time, while another of him bouncing the ball off opposition defender Gabriel’s head in the immediate aftermath of City’s late equaliser attracted even more. Haaland’s opening goal after nine minutes, meanwhile, though crucial and record-breaking, didn’t even merit a mention in the post-game analysis on the BBC’s flagship highlights show Match Of The Day, it was so routine.
It was the kind of performance that encapsulates City fans’ adoration for Haaland. There’s a personality that comes with the efficiency in front of goal, an edge that has emerged from his hunger for more. Even on the periphery of games — he took the fewest touches of anyone to play at least 60 minutes at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday — his raw, game-breaking power always simmers beneath the surface.
Haaland has scored against every one of the 23 Premier League teams that he has faced since joining City in summer 2022, netting on four separate occasions against West Ham and three times each against United, Liverpool and Arsenal, while he’s hit two hat-tricks and scored eight goals in total against Wolves. He needs four more hat-tricks to break the Premier League record, with eight in just over 64 full games, while he’s already the fastest player in the division’s history to reach the 10, 25 and 50 league goals milestones.
After another relentless start to the new season, The Athletic breaks down this historic rampage through English football.
The one-v-ones
Close your eyes and envision the classic Haaland goal. You’re probably seeing him stomp through the middle, latch onto a perfectly weighted pass, and slide the ball into the far corner, right?
Looking back through his catalogue, it’s a finish that we’ve seen seven times since the 24-year-old joined City from Borussia Dortmund in Germany, including his very first for the club.
The ball from Kevin De Bruyne, the devastating pace in-behind, and the readjustment to allow him to finish first time, it’s a sequence that has largely shaped our subconscious on how the world’s most prolific striker scores his goals.
All the angles of Erling Haaland’s second goal vs West Ham 💫 pic.twitter.com/rfZZgkXnQq
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 8, 2022
Despite the strength of that image, 56 games and 53 goals would pass in a blur of tap-ins and rebounds before Haaland would convert in that way again, slotting into the bottom left corner almost 13 months later against Fulham.
But then they came in a flurry; the first in a comeback win against RB Leipzig, a crucial winner against Brentford, and a sweet finish to seal three points in a Manchester derby against United — his sixth Premier League goal in barely four games against City’s bitter cross-town foes.
The lengths to which Haaland goes to change his body orientation to set up the finish made his 100th City goal against Arsenal on Sunday stand out.
The build-up was extremely familiar — hanging on the shoulder of the central defender, latching onto the through ball and taking aim from almost the exact same position as with the West Ham goal above — but he almost takes the shot in his stride, poking home at the near-post rather than readjusting and sliding it towards the far side.
Setting up as usual in frame one, the sudden switch seems to catch goalkeeper David Raya, who had shuffled across to block Haaland’s trademark finish, off-guard.
The data also suggests Haaland prefers the finish across goal on his left, as illustrated by the visual below.
Filtering for shots taken from the near-third of the goal to the width of the penalty area (marked in the graphic by the red and blue areas), and those taken with the opposite foot (left-footed shots from the right side of goal, and vice versa), Haaland has gone for the far-post finish 62.3 per cent of the time from his right-zone shots, scoring with nine of those 18 attempts.
Although, his conversion rate when he switches for the near-post is also high, finishing seven of his 12 efforts from the blue area of the pitch.
Increasing that unpredictability to his one-v-one finishing, as per the Arsenal goal, might be the next evolution to look out for in his game.
Haaland loves a lob too, scooping the ball over the ’keeper five times after being sent through on goal.
A confident finish against West Ham towards the end of last season is probably a standout; poor Lukasz Fabianski would go on to be chipped again by him for his hat-trick-clinching goal three weekends ago.
Haaland is not immune to squandering chances — he has missed more big chances (65) than any player in the Premier League since his debut in it 25 months ago — but he rarely chooses the wrong options when it comes down to a one-v-one.
The signs of increasing variety suggest that’s not going to change any time soon.
The runs to the back post
Much of Haaland’s role for City centres on occupying defenders while team-mates develop play around him, taking few touches, but fixing centre-backs and creating spaces for others to exploit.
As such, movement is crucial for him to maximise his goalscoring output, at his most dangerous when he can float to the back post with the ball on the opposite flank. No player has received more back-post chances (33) or scored more back-post goals (six) since Haaland landed in the Premier League.
A powerful header against Nottingham Forest provides a textbook example of his slippery movement in the penalty area, first peeling behind Serge Aurier, before feigning to dart to the near post in frame two. At high speeds, the quick changes of direction leave his defender flat-footed; Aurier is stranded as the ball is clipped over him and Haaland plants a header into the opposite corner.
Even when the movement isn’t so intricate, Haaland’s physicality allows him to dominate aerial duels at the back post, as against Wolves below.
Few defenders in world football are competing with that leap.
The darts to the front post
Defenders are aware of Haaland’s ability to attack the back-post space, but he can mix up his penalty-box movement and attack the front post with similar force.
He sealed his seventh City hat-trick with an emphatic finish against Fulham, latching onto Sergio Gomez’s pull-back and hammering the ball into the bottom corner, while the first of his five against Luton showed how his varied approach can play on defenders’ minds.
As De Bruyne is slipped into the box, Teden Mengi is constantly checking Haaland’s movement. He elects to defend the space at the back post, and cannot recover as the Norwegian suddenly jumps in front of him and stabs home with his left foot.
With the number of crosses and cutbacks falling his way at the top of the City team, it’s little wonder he continues to rack up the goals.
The instinctive finishes
First-time strikes, snapshots, bundled-in on the line; Haaland’s ability to sort his feet out and consistently hit through the ball gives him the edge when it drops for him in the penalty area.
Thirty of his 82 non-penalty goals have been hit from within the six-yard box, while emphatic finishes against West Ham this season and Burnley on the first day of the previous one showed him at his devastating best.
Haaland 🆚 Burnley pic.twitter.com/zPqi3AcUjd
— Manchester City (@ManCityES) August 29, 2023
The power, the pinpoint accuracy: what can you really do to stop it?
The shots from distance
Plotting each of Haaland’s 389 shots for City shows us he has only scored six of his 100 goals from outside the penalty area, but that’s not to say that he isn’t capable.
A vicious strike against Brighton was a stark reminder of the punch he packs from distance, while his third of the afternoon against Ipswich this season was all about instinct, hardly looking up at the target before swivelling and arrowing a low shot in off the near post.
The penalties
Spot-kicks are bread and butter for a striker of Haaland’s quality, but at 18 per cent of his City goals, they represent a significant portion that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Predictably, he finishes them as confidently as anything from open play, scoring all but two of his penalty attempts. In both of the games that he did miss — away to Sheffield United and Bayern Munich — he went on to score afterwards anyway.
Each of his last seven penalties have been placed to the left, with only his strike against Tottenham in May hit with much elevation.
Maybe that’s why the rolled finish into the bottom left corner feels so familiar, after all.
And the goals only Haaland can score
There are few sights in football quite like Haaland throwing himself at a cross, limbs flailing as 6ft 4in (194cm) of striker flies through the air.
His miraculous finish against previous club Dortmund in September 2022 is a particular highlight, his left boot emerging from nowhere to divert Joao Cancelo’s delightful outside-of-the-foot cross back across goal and into Alexander Meyer’s net, before clattering to the ground in a heap.
There was a similarly spectacular finish at the back-post against United, while an impressive overhead kick at Southampton in April last year caught Haaland at the peak of his powers, and was his 10th goal in three games.
Watching Haaland barrel forward with the ball at his feet is another sight to behold, and although he isn’t afforded the same amount of space against the deeper defences City regularly face, his second against Everton in February this year sticks out as a display of his forward momentum, bundling Jarrad Branthwaite, who’s also 6ft 4in, to the ground before applying his signature finish.
“I can improve so much, and I think I’m in the perfect place to keep on developing,” says Haaland on the club’s official YouTube channel; words that will send a shudder down the spine of Premier League defenders up and down the country.
“I just love the feeling,” he continues, “and that’s why I do it.”
Barring a catastrophe, we’ll see you at 200 very soon.
(Top photo: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
