Making history is rarely as unsurprising. The problem Erling Haaland has is that the predictability of his exploits can dull the sense of wonder. It was not a question of if he scored more goals than anyone else in a season in Premier League history but when and how. Just when it seemed he was about to go on a one-game goal drought, he accelerated on to Jack Grealish’s pass and chipped a shot that, aided by Lukasz Fabianski crouching, flew into the West Ham net.
It took to him 35 league goals. And now every great goalscorer the division has ever boasted is behind Haaland: the record of 34, set in a 42-game season, shared by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer for the last 28 years, fell, as it long appeared obvious it would. It also took him to 51 in all competitions: Tom “Pongo” Waring and Vic Watson, figures mentioned rather less often since the Second World War than before it, mustered a half-century apiece but now there is only Dixie Dean, with his increasingly iconic number of 63, set in 1927-28, ahead of Haaland. Only one footballer has ever got more goals in a season for an English top-flight side.
