Strikers don’t come deadlier than Erling Haaland, who has taken Premier League’s goalscoring standards to a new stratosphere since arriving from Borussia Dortmund in 2022.
In 135 games, he’s bagged a mammoth 115 goals, with no other player coming even remotely close to holding a candle to his tally during this period.
Every team has tried stopping him, but most of them failed. Rather miserably. However, a few teams have been victims of his blistering exploits more than others.
One such team is Manchester United. Haaland announced his arrival to the Red Devils with a sensational hat-trick on his derby debut in October 2022 as City prevailed 6-3 in a memorable Etihad victory.
In addition to that, the Norwegian ace had also bagged two assists for one of the finest individual displays in recent Premier League history.
Although the Red Devils managed to shut him out on his first visit to Old Trafford later that season, Haaland came back to haunt them in the 2023-24 campaign, firing three goals across both their league meetings.
The Old Trafford leg ended 3-0 with Haaland bagging his first pair of goals at the iconic venue before teeing up Phil Foden late on. A few months later when the sides met for their second league meeting, the striker was having a tough game as United appeared to have boxed him up. But Haaland stormed back to the scoresheet in stoppage-time to apply finishing touches to their 3-1 victory.
Last season, he netted twice again to guide City to a comprehensive 3-0 vanquish of United at home, continuing his dominant record in the fixture as the Red Devils must be searching the Norwegian word for “fear” at this point.
Since he started playing in the Premier League four years ago, Haaland has only scored more against West Ham (11), Wolverhampton Wanderers (10), Crystal Palace (10) and Fulham (8). Also, Manchester United are his favorite opponents among the traditional ‘Big Six’.
As City renew hostilities with their derby rivals once more on Sunday, Haaland must be relishing the prospect of facing them again, especially with United’s defense looking wobbly and lacking any semblance of discipline as they’ve conceded six goals in their first three Premier League games.
Meanwhile, the striker himself is breathing fire at the moment, bagging five from City’s last three games in all competitions to shrug off his slow start after drawing a blank against Arsenal in the Community Shield and in the league opener against Bournemouth.