Ahead of Manchester City’s trip to Leicester City this weekend, manager Pep Guardiola gave an Erling Haaland fitness update The “Nordic Meat Shield,” a some affectionately call him, injured his foot during his return to Signal Iduna Park. Subbed off at halftime, in the goalless draw against his former team, Borussia Dortmund, he is a doubt for the clash at the King Power tomorrow.
“He feels better but we will train this afternoon and we will assess in a few hours,” said Guardiola. “We will see how he feels in his foot and after we will decide. I will know in two hours if he’s able to play or not.”
Manchester City at Leicester City FYIs
Kick-off time: 12:30 PM GMT, 29th October 2022
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Team News for Both Sides: go here
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Premier League Form Guide: Man City WLWWW Leicester WWDLW
Haaland now has 22 goals in 16 games across all competitions. In the Premier League he has 17 in 11, to go with five in the Champions League contests. Astounding, simply astounding. Guardiola extolled his striker’s virtues last weekend.
“I’m Catalan so my English language is not big enough,” Guardiola said. “The numbers are incredible and there’s no doubt about his quality.
“He is so ambitious and he helped us win the game.”
It’s been an amazing year already for individual record breaking in sport- look no further than Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, and his breaking the home run record. Haaland is like the Aaron Judge of his sport. No, actually the Nordic scoring machine is actually even better.
Let’s take a look at the records that could be up for grabs for him, as well as his current pace towards getting there.
Premier League Pace
Erling Haaland is on a 1.54 goals per game pace, which would net him 58.7, or 58 goals for the season. Let’s take a look at the current records.
Most goals in a Premier League season (42 games): 34
Andy Cole (Newcastle United, 1993–94)
Alan Shearer (Blackburn Rovers, 1994–95)
Most goals in a Premier League season (38 games):
32, Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, 2017–18)
It appears Erling Haaland will easily crush both of these records into a million little pieces.
European big five leagues individual season scoring record:
73, Lionel Messi, FC Barcelona, 2011-12
Looks like this one is out of reach.
English top flight season scoring record:
Dixie Dean, Everton, 60 goals, 1927-28, in 39 games
This is the real one to watch here. Haaland will have to step it up a bit, and then hold that pace over the long term, but it can be done.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and he co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast, part of Edge of the Crowd Network. Follow him and the website on Twitter and Instagram.