5 spectacular reasons why Erling Haaland is the greatest Premier League player of all time

Here are five interesting reasons for you to consider Erling Haaland as the greatest player to play in the English Premier League.

In its 31-year history, the Premier League has housed some of the best talents the beautiful game has ever seen, with many players who have left indelible impressions on the sport plying their trade in the English top flight.  

However, as in everything else, some have burrowed deeper into the sands of time. When asked to name the greatest Premier League player of all time, some of the usual names pop up: Alan Shearer, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Robbie Fowler, and Thierry Henry, to name a few.

Many of the names prevalent in such lists and claims are players who have called time on their footballing careers and whose catalogue can be fully explored; however, there's an argument to be made for Manchester City's Norwegian Erling Haaland to take his place on this prestigious platform, despite his short Premier League career so far. 

Most goals in a single 38-game Premier League campaign

Before the Nordic meatshield set ashore the Premier League, the record for most goals scored in a 38-game Premier League campaign was 32, set in the 2017/18 season by Mohammed Salah, with the Egyptian leapfrogging great names like Shearer, Ronaldo, and Luis Suarez, who all reached the 31-goal mark. 

In his first season, Haaland has now obliterated Salah's record, as his penalty against Fulham took his season tally to 34 goals with six games still to play. 

Most Premier League goals a season 

Although Salah held the record now eclipsed by Haaland for most goals in a single 38-game Premier League season, Shearer and Andy Cole hold the record for most goals in a single Premier League season (34). 

The English top flight was a competition between 22 teams until the 1995/96 season when the maximum number of games per team was 42. 

When Cole and Shearer hit the landmark in the 1993/94 and 1994/95 campaigns, respectively, they did it in a 42-game season; however, Haaland has now scored as many after Manchester City have only played 32 games this season. 

Haaland hit the half-century

Haaland's strike against Fulham was his 50th goal of the season playing for a Premier League club. Before him, no player in English top-flight history since its rebranding in 1992 had reached that tally. 

In English football history, one has to go back 92 years to find a season as prolific as the former Dortmund striker's current campaign.

34 goals in the Premier League (most) and 12 in the Champions League (most) are included in this tally of 50, which no one has achieved in England since 1931.

His 50 goals take him level with West Ham's Vic Watson (1929/30), and Aston Villa's Tom Waring (1930/31) for most goals in all competitions in a season and leave him 13 goals behind the record holder, Everton's Dixie Dean, who scored 63 goals in the (1927/28) campaign. 

With about 10 games to go in all competitions for Manchester City, eclipsing Dean's record is a possibility for the big striker. He could become the highest goal scorer ever in a season for an English top flight football league club.  

Haaland is on course for a treble 

Although winning a treble is not unprecedented in the Premier League, as Manchester United did in 1999, its rarity still gives it weight.

Manchester City are in the FA Cup final, in which they are favourites, and they have successfully usurped Arsenal at the top of the Premier League. With two steps left in the Champions League as well, the Cityzens could become only the second team in the Premier League's history to achieve a treble, with Haaland undoubtedly the best performer for Pep Guardiola's side. 

Haaland is only 22

The most fascinating thing about the Norwegian's exploits this season is that he is yet to enter what is seen as the prime of football players, as he is only 22 years old.  

In only his first season in the English top flight, Erling has torched and continues to threaten many Premier League records. With age on his side and the expectation that his chemistry with his teammates will increase, he is expected to hit many more heights. 

He is already among the greatest players to ply their trade on the British Isles and could open a gap at the top with age and, consequently, time on his side.  

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