Can Erling Haaland break the Premier League goalscoring record?

All hail Erling Haaland. The Norwegian goalscoring king destroying defences at will.

Haaland bagged a hat-trick in Norway's 5-0 win over Israel on Saturday, the tenth consecutive game in which he has been on the scoresheet – a personal record and extension to a run that has seen him find the net 21 times in 12 outings for club and country this term.

The 25-year-old was given the night off by Norway boss Stale Solbakken for Tuesday's friendly against New Zealand, which is bad news for the next team tasked with stopping the Manchester City superstar, Everton, whom Haaland has scored against four times in as many appearances.

Haaland's nine-goal haul in his first seven league games of the season is actually fewer than he managed in both 2022-23 (11) and 2024-25 (ten), but it still feels inevitable that he will break his own top-flight best of 36 goals in a single season set during City's treble-winning season of 2022-23.

The Norwegian has now bagged 94 goals in 104 Premier League outings for City and breaking Alan Shearer's record of 260 Premier League goals suddenly seems eminently achievable. Indeed, bet365 go 3-1 that he will one day be statistically the most prolific marksman in the league's history.

Erling Haaland's Premier League goal hauls

Source: Premier League

A victim of his own success?

Ridiculously written off at times last season, Haaland's 22-goal haul was still the third-highest in the league but down on his previous tallies of 36 and 27.

Seemingly rejuvenated this term, if Haaland maintains his current scoring rate then he could finish the campaign with 49 goals. 

Is that realistic? No. Will it happen? Probably not. But it is no surprise to see him hitting such heights as Manchester City's rebuild begins to take shape.

Last season's 21 league wins were City's fewest since 2015-16, the campaign before Pep Guardiola took over. 

City may not have been perfect during the first couple of months but there are signs that Guardiola is developing something different. They scored 'only' 72 goals last term, an average of 1.89 per game, but a league high 16 goals in seven outings this term means their average has risen sharply to 2.14.  

All change at the Etihad

City are in transition and Haaland is front and centre of their new approach.

From an obsession with possession, Pep has prioritised speed and size in the last two transfer windows.

January signings Vitor Reis, Abdukodir Khusanov and Nico Gonzalez all stand over six feet tall. Summer arrival Tijjani Reijnders doesn't but the Dutch ace has injected energy into City's midfield not seen since the days of Fernandinho. 

Omar Marmoush has also proved versatile and effective while Rayan Cherki's darts are David Silva-esque.

Guardiola pioneered inverted full-backs, partly to fill space in midfield. However, this season he has been more reactive, even fielding four centre-backs at times. 

The added dynamism helps City move the ball quickly, allowing additional space for Haaland to run into. 

Can he be stopped from breaking Shearer's record?

Source: Premier League

At 25, Haaland is playing in a refreshed team who are developing together and are unlikely to break up any time soon.

Rumours of a move to Real Madrid regularly crop up, but even if Vinicius Junior departs the Bernabeu as seems ever more likely, Kylian Mbappe is so comfortable playing through the middle that it is unlikely he would be interested in accommodating Haaland by shifting to the left.

Haaland's contract at City expires in 2034, meaning that even if his scoring rate slows, he will still break Shearer's Premier League record with three seasons to spare.

Shearer's 260 goals came at a rate of one every 146.9 minutes over a period of 14 seasons. However, Haaland is bowling along at an implausible rate of 92.2 minutes per goal, reaching 94 by the early stages of his fourth season in the English top flight.

According to Premier League data, if he maintains his average of 2,686 minutes played per season, he will eclipse Shearer in another 5.7 seasons.

Second on the all-time Premier League goalscoring list is Harry Kane with 213. 

Kane is in incredible form for Bayern Munich and has said he is happy in Germany. If he does return home, he may not have time to overtake Shearer.

Mohamed Salah is the leading marksman of active Premier League players with 188 goals, but at 33, a year older than Kane, time is also not on the Egyptian's side.

Haaland's start to this season suggests the Leeds-born forward means business. 

He is unlikely to be stuck on 94 goals for long and has 20 appearances to break another Shearer record of being the quickest player to reach a century of Premier League goals.

Breaking records is par for the course as far as Haaland is concerned, but eclipsing Shearer's previously untouchable all-time mark feels like only a matter of time.

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