Haaland Surpasses Premier League Top Scorers from Last Season

By: Gyang Dakwo

Erling Haaland has surpassed last season’s Premier League Golden Boot tally after just 20 games.

The Manchester City goal machine has scored his fourth hat-trick of the season against Wolves at the Etihad, taking him onto 25 goals for the campaign – even though it’s still January. That’s two more than Mohamed Salah and Heung-min Son registered in 2021/22 to share the top scorer award.

Haaland opened the scoring against Wolves five minutes before half-time, heading home a Kevin De Bruyne cross.

He then doubled City’s tally from the spot four minutes after the restart after Ilkay Gundogan was fouled in the box.

His hat-trick was completed five minutes later when Riyad Mahrez capitalised on a mistake by Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa and played him in for an easy finish.

He’s done so in just his 19th league appearance having missed out on the trip to Leicester in October through injury. Pep Guardiola rewarded him with a break as Julian Alvarez came on to replace him shortly after he completed his treble.

Haaland potentially still has 18 more games to extend his lead at the top of the standings, with Tottenham’s Harry Kane his nearest challenger on 15 strikes.

The record for a Prem season sits at 34, which Andy Cole scored for Newcastle United in 1993/94 and Alan Shearer matched for Blackburn the following campaign.

City, meanwhile, have closed the gap to league leaders Arsenal to just two points, albeit having played two games more.