Haaland hits record goal No 35 as champions go top
His 35th Premier League goal set a new mark for the elite league started in 1992-93, eclipsing Andy Cole and Alan Shearer. He was given a lively guard of honour by Pep Guardiola, his manager, and the City squad at full-time
English football is witnessing astonishing goals in the taking, records in the breaking and history in the making.
Sent through by Jack Grealish after 70 minutes, Erling Haaland timed his run perfectly to elude the offside trap, slowed his stride to lure Lukasz Fabianski into the ideal position to commit the West Ham United goalkeeper and then beat him.
The ball went into the net and Haaland into the record books.
He made it look all so easy. All Haaland’s strengths were showcased in the goal: the work rate always to be on the prowl, the awareness to see Bernardo Silva turning the ball over from Danny Ings, the intelligence to understand Grealish was going to deliver the forward pass and then the athleticism and acceleration to race past Thilo Kehrer.
Then there was the mind of a mathematician, a master of the angles, to ensure that he had Fabianski exactly where he wanted him, and then that exceptional technique to apply the coup de grâce with an effortlessly lifted finish.
It was not the most important goal of the night: Nathan Aké’s opener was, as it finally broke West Ham’s resistance after 50 minutes and set Manchester City on their way to victory. It was not even the most dramatic connection:
Phil Foden’s 85th-minute one was, whatever the nature of the deflection for the third goal. But Haaland’s was the most momentous.
There will be children in local schools doing the maths and the history about Haaland’s prolific feats. His 35th Premier League goal set a new mark for the elite league started in 1992-93, eclipsing Andy Cole and Alan Shearer.
He was given a lively guard of honour by Pep Guardiola, his manager, and the City squad at full-time; Haaland charged through that as well.
Even more remarkably, Haaland now has eight games — nine if City reach the Champions League final — to score the 13 goals that will break Dixie Dean’s record of 63 in all competitions in one season as a top-flight player in England.
That record has stood since 1927-28, when Alexander Fleming was discovering penicillin, Evelyn Waugh publishing Decline and Fall and John Logie Baird was moving the dial on colour TV. Dean’s record belongs to another age. Haaland’s scoring belongs to another planet.
