We look at whether Norwegian’s dominance as a scorer for his club can sustain a title challenge
Football writer Alex Keble looks at Erling Haaland’s prolific form in front of goal this season, and considers whether Manchester City are too dependent on him.
Erling Haaland’s incredible start to the 2025/26 Premier League season would be unprecedented – were it not for Haaland himself making this kind of explosive beginning seem normal.
Only three times in the competition’s history has a player reached double figures in the Premier League after just eight matches, and in each case the goalscorer was Haaland.
He has scored 11 goals in eight matches this season, and yet this is actually a slower journey to double figures than his 10 goals in six games in 2022/23 and 10 goals in five in 2024/25.
Fastest to 10+ goals in Premier League
Player
Season
Matches
Haaland
2024/25
5
Haaland
2022/23
6
Haaland
2025/26
8
Haaland’s brace against Everton continued a hot streak.
He is already five goals clear in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot and has scored 23 goals in 13 matches in all competitions for club and country, netting in each of his last 11 games in a row.
Watch Haaland’s two goals v Everton
Those are undeniably brilliant numbers – but does it hint at an imbalance in the Manchester City squad?
Are Pep Guardiola’s side too reliant on Haaland for goals, and if so, does that leave them vulnerable to an injury or a dip in the Norwegian’s form?
Haaland’s goals are a record proportion of Man City’s total
Haaland’s 11 Premier League goals represent 65 per cent of Man City’s 17 scored so far.
City’s next-highest goalscorer this season is Burnley defender Maxime Esteve, who scored two own goals in his side’s 5-1 loss at the Etihad Stadium last month. After that, Rayan Cherki, Matheus Nunes, Phil Foden and Tijani Reijnders have netted one goal each.
Haaland’s Expected Goals (xG) tally of 8.69 accounts for 59.5 per cent of the team’s total of 14.6 xG.
How Haaland compares for Expected Goals 25/26
Player
Goals
xG
Erling Haaland
11
8.69
Jean-Philippe Mateta
5
7.75
Bruno Fernandes
2
3.90
Enzo Fernandez
3
3.75
Antoine Semenyo
6
3.73
Depending on how you look at it, that is either a cause for celebration or concern.
The next-highest proportion this season is Nick Woltemade, whose four goals represent 57 per cent of Newcastle United’s total, but that figure is only so high because Eddie Howe’s side are currently struggling to score goals (just seven so far).
And in terms of Premier League history, Haaland’s current percentage is out in front. The next-best, after Woltemade’s, is James Beattie’s 53.5 per cent (23 out of 43) for Southampton over two decades ago in 2002/03.
Players to score at least half of their team’s PL goals
Player
Season
Goals
Team goals
% of team’s goals
Erling Haaland (MCI)
25/26
11
17
64.7%
Nick Woltemade (NEW)
25/26
4
7
57.1%
James Beattie (SOU)
02/03
23
43
53.5%
Kevin Phillips (SUN)
99/00
30
57
52.6%
Jermain Defoe (SUN)
16/17
15
29
51.7%
Andrew Johnson (CRY)
04/05
21
41
51.2%
Matthew Le Tissier (SOU)
93/94
25
49
51.0%
Alan Shearer (BLB)
95/96
31
61
50.8%
Darren Bent (SUN)
09/10
24
48
50.0%
Jarrod Bowen (WHU)
25/26
3
6
50.0%
Scroll across to see full table
Looking at that table, what almost everyone has in common (aside from scoring lots of penalties) is playing for a club fighting relegation.
For Haaland to be hitting these numbers for a title-challenging team is highly unusual, as reported in The Athletic.
The Athletic reports that in the Premier League era, the highest share of goals by a single scorer for that season’s title-winner was Alan Shearer’s 42.5 per cent for Blackburn Rovers in 1994/95 (34 out of 80).
The next-highest after Shearer is Thierry Henry’s 41.1 per cent for Arsenal in 2003/04 (30 out of 73).
The average for the top scorer of a title-winning team is just 25.9 per cent. Haaland is a lot more than double that number.
Does that tell us that Man City simply can’t win the Premier League with this ratio?
Man City will want goals from elsewhere – but it isn’t essential
“Obviously we are happy whoever scores, and we’re always happy when Erling scores,” Ruben Dias said after the 2-0 victory over Everton, in which Haaland’s lethal touch got Man City out of a tough situation.
“He’s a very, very important player for us. But more and more we want everyone to be involved. We want everyone to be scoring, not just Erling.”
Guardiola went further: “As a team, we have to know we cannot rely completely on him. We need the other guys. Wingers and attacking midfielders have to score goals, otherwise it will not be possible to achieve what we want to try to do.”
Clearly the manager is a little concerned by Haaland’s 65 per cent figure. But should he be?
What’s important to note is game state, because, the Everton match aside, there is an argument to be made that if Haaland did not score an early opener, Man City would have played in a different way, made changes, and responded to the situation.
Once Haaland scores, the pressure is lifted. That does not mean others would not rise to the occasion if he did not.
Haaland has scored a first-half opener three times in the Premier League this season. Another player has given Man City the lead, also in the first half, in another two matches.
City’s attackers are likely to step up when and if they are needed.
Certainly we know Man City can play without Haaland, should injury strike. Phil Foden has excelled as a false nine in the past while Omar Marmoush, back from injury, scored 22 league goals in 33 games for Frankfurt and Man City last season.
Even if Haaland goes through a dry spell, Marmoush and Foden – plus Rayan Cherki or Jeremy Doku – are likely to find a route to goal, such is the creativity in the side; they have created 81 chances this season, the third most in the division.
To an extent, then, Haaland’s goalscoring record simply reflects his remarkable ability, rather than a deficiency anywhere else in the team.
There is more than enough quality elsewhere to provide goals if needed. It’s just that with Haaland in this kind of form, they simply aren’t.
The Norwegian is only four goals away from joining the Premier League’s 100 Club and, given he has only played 105 matches in the competition, he looks set to smash Shearer’s record of taking 124 appearances to reach 100 goals.
That kind of form, no matter how dominant it makes Haaland, can only be good news for Man City.
