Erling Haaland’s stunning scoring start at Manchester City in focus

Erling Haaland extended his remarkable start at Manchester City to 13 goals in nine games with his Champions League winner against Borussia Dortmund.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at Haaland’s early statistics.

Champions League

Pep Guardiola’s side have dominated domestically but are yet to win Europe’s top prize, and hopes are high that Haaland is the final piece of that puzzle.

He has certainly started strongly, taking just 20 minutes to find the target against Sevilla and adding another in the second half of a 4-0 win.

Against his former club Dortmund, for whom he scored 15 goals in 13 Champions League appearances, it was almost inevitable he would hit the net and, after being kept at bay until the 84th minute, he leapt to turn in Joao Cancelo’s cross and seal a 2-1 win.

Premier League

Haaland has equalled Micky Quinn’s record as the quickest to 10 Premier League goals, having beaten Quinn and former City star Sergio Aguero with a record nine in his first five games.

He scored twice on his league debut against West Ham and, though he drew a blank against Bournemouth, he was back on the scoresheet in the thrilling 3-3 comeback draw with Newcastle.

Another fightback to beat Palace was sparked by a Haaland hat-trick and he became only the sixth man with back-to-back Premier League hat-tricks as City strolled to a 6-0 win over Nottingham Forest, before scoring again at Aston Villa.

His start is eerily reminiscent of Aguero when he arrived in Manchester in 2011. The Argentinian also opened with a brace, against Swansea, followed by a scoreless outing at Bolton, a single goal against Tottenham and a hat-trick against Wigan.

He scored both City goals in a draw with Fulham in his fifth appearance – the first point at which Haaland improved on his record. Aguero then took three games to add to his tally and went on to score 23 league goals that season.

Quinn scored eight in Coventry’s first five games in the inaugural Premier League season in 1992-93. He netted twice in defeat to Manchester City, scored in draws with Sheffield United and Ipswich and added further braces against Southampton and Liverpool – and then against Villa to make it 10 in six.

How he compares

While these are extremely early days for Haaland in the Premier League, his early scoring form was unmatched by the league’s great goalscorers.

By taking only six games to reach double figures, he is five games quicker than Aguero and four faster than Alan Shearer – his nearest rivals among the top five Premier League marksmen.

Andy Cole took 13 games to reach 10 goals, while Harry Kane and Wayne Rooney needed 30 and 50 respectively.

Cole reached 25 goals, the next landmark for Haaland, in 27 games with Shearer and Aguero needing 34 and 38 respectively, Kane 55 and Rooney 92.

Shearer is the league’s record scorer with 260 goals while Rooney netted 208, Kane has edged one ahead of Cole on 188 and Aguero holds the City record with 184.

In the Champions League, Haaland’s 26 goals already rank him just outside the top 30 scorers in the competition.

He reached 25 in just 20 games with his brace against Sevilla – less than half as many games as the competition’s top five goalscorers Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Karim Benzema and Raul took to get there.

Benzema was quickest of that group in 41 games, with Messi and Lewandowski on 42. The latter mark has since been matched by Paris St Germain star Kylian Mbappe – 10 goals ahead of Haaland on 36 as the pair quickly climb the ranks.