Alan Shearer believes the 'scary' Erling Haaland will 'storm past' the 50-goal mark for Manchester City this season with a previous prediction of 40 already surpassed.
Haaland scored his 43rd and 44th goals of the campaign in Saturday's comfortable 4-1 win at Southampton to hand City an eighth straight win in all competitions. The Norwegian powered through the Saints' defence to nod home Kevin De Bruyne's cross on 45 minutes, before an incredible overhead kick with 20 minutes left saw three points secured.
The Blues are now five points behind league leaders Arsenal, who play Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday afternoon, and Haaland looks set to break yet more records in the coming weeks. The 22-year-old is level with Mohamed Salah and Andy Cole as the highest one-season scorer across all competitions in the Premier League era, and Shearer believes he will go on to smash it.
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"I wonder how many people thought it was hyperbole when I wrote in The Athletic nearly a year ago that Erling Haaland would score 40 goals in this Manchester City team," Shearer wrote in his latest column for The Athletic.
"City were buying goals — as close as you can get to an absolute, cast-iron guarantee — by adding an exceptional centre-forward to a phenomenally creative side and, if anything, I was being stingy. Exceptional? He’s almost perfect and that haul of 40 is already in his rear-view mirror.
"That number has never felt like a stretch. Under Pep Guardiola, City are a striker’s dream, ripe with chances, and now they have a player to get on the end of all that brilliance from Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and the rest. I’d have backed Harry Kane to get there in similar circumstances and, in my prime — the consecutive seasons when I scored 31, 34 and 31 league goals for Blackburn Rovers — I reckon I would have gone close, too."
He continued: "At a minimum, City have another 12 fixtures this season and potentially up to four more on top. If he can stay fit, Haaland will obliterate the Premier League record I share with Andy Cole of 34 goals in a single season (he is only four behind) and at his current rate of averages in all competitions, with 44 in 38 appearances, he will storm past 50. Even that may be a disservice to him. Who knows, we could even be talking 60 and Dixie Dean territory. Scary."
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