While it may not come as a surprise, Manchester City forward Erling Haaland has been excelling at his role, scoring goals at an astonishing pace since his arrival at the club in 2022.
The Norwegian international has been on a record-breaking spree since he joined the Premier League. Before Tuesday’s match against Fulham, the 25-year-old had netted an impressive 143 goals in just 164 appearances across all competitions for City since his signing.
Haaland has already set the record for the fastest player to reach 50 goals in the league, accomplishing the feat in just 48 matches and surpassing the previous record by 17 games. He has maintained this remarkable scoring trend, racing toward his rapid century.
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With a goal in the 17th minute at Craven Cottage, Haaland reached the milestone of 100 Premier League goals faster than any player in history, achieving this in just 111 matches. He has utterly eclipsed the former record held for 30 years by Premier League legend Alan Shearer.
Haaland now leads the list of the top 10 fastest Premier League centurions.
10. Michael Owen and Andy Cole (100 goals in 185 games)
Both Owen and Cole, with a combined total of 337 Premier League goals, are renowned for their goal-scoring prowess, though they took a more measured pace in reaching their centuries compared to Haaland’s relentless scoring. Cole previously held the 50-goal record at 65 games until Haaland broke it during his 48th league match with a goal against Liverpool in November 2023.
9. Les Ferdinand (178 games)
A peer and teammate of Shearer at Newcastle United in the mid-1990s, Ferdinand amassed 149 Premier League goals during fruitful tenures with Queens Park Rangers, Newcastle, and Tottenham Hotspur, adding to his tally later with spells at West Ham United, Leicester City, and Bolton Wanderers, where he scored once in his final dozen top-flight matches.
8. Robbie Fowler (175 games)
A Liverpool icon, Fowler scored a total of 163 Premier League goals, with the initial 120 coming during his memorable nine-year run at Anfield. His 100th goal came against Southampton in the 1999-00 season, although it was a frustrating year overall, as he managed only three goals across 14 league appearances due to injuries.
7. Ian Wright (173 games)
Wright scored 24 goals in 30 matches during his debut season, continuing his impressive form into the Premier League with 104 goals in his subsequent 191 matches for Arsenal. He registered his 100th Premier League goal with a hat trick against Bolton at Highbury in September 1997, a feat also notable for him surpassing Cliff Bastin to become the club’s all-time leading scorer.
Mohamed Salah’s Premier League journey began with a brief and uneventful spell at Chelsea, where he only scored two goals in 13 league games. His resurgence came after returning to England with Liverpool in 2017-18, where his goal-scoring rate skyrocketed. Salah nearly reached his century within four seasons at Anfield, finishing the 2020-21 season with 97 goals. Fortunately, he scored his next three goals in just four games of the subsequent season, achieving a Premier League total of 100 with a key goal in Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Leeds United in September 2021. As it stands, the four-time Golden Boot winner has netted 190 Premier League goals in 311 matches, placing him fourth in the all-time scoring hierarchy.
5. Thierry Henry (160 games)
Henry had a rocky start in the Premier League, managing only one goal in his first 12 matches for Arsenal after his transfer in 1999-00, prompting doubts about Arsène Wenger’s decision to invest £11 million in him. However, his performance turned around dramatically, leading to 17 league goals in both of his first two seasons and another 24 in each of the next two. Notably, his 100th goal was scored during Arsenal’s “Invincibles” season of 2003-04, a campaign in which they won the title unbeaten, solidifying his legacy as one of the league’s all-time greats.
4. Sergio Agüero (147 games)
Agüero wasted no time after joining Manchester City, scoring eight goals in his first five league matches post his transfer from Atlético Madrid in the 2011-12 season. His contributions were essential to City’s rapid ascent under new ownership, leading to a historic Premier League title in his debut year, sealed dramatically by his own last-minute goal.
The Argentine striker reached his Premier League century in just 147 matches, previously the second-fastest to achieve this milestone after Shearer. His 100th goal came via a header against Newcastle in the closing weeks of the 2015-16 season. After taking 90 matches to net his first 50 league goals, Harry Kane later accelerated his scoring pace, taking only 51 additional games for his second half-century, with his 100th goal coming from the spot in a 2-2 draw against Liverpool in April 2020. Currently, Kane, who now plays for Bayern Munich, is among only three players with more than 200 Premier League goals, standing at 213, placing him second to Shearer in the all-time rankings.
2. Alan Shearer (124 games)
Shearer, one of the league’s most celebrated strikers, clinched the title with Blackburn Rovers in the 1994-95 season and made history by surpassing 30 goals for three consecutive seasons. He achieved his 100th goal in December 1995 during a match against Tottenham, quickly adding to his tally before transferring to Newcastle for a then-record £15 million ahead of the 1996-97 season. Shearer went on to score 148 more goals for his boyhood club, solidifying his status as the highest goal-scorer in Premier League history with a record 260 goals, a feat he has maintained since 2006.
1. Erling Haaland (111 games)
Once thought to be an impossible challenge, Shearer’s goal-scoring records in the Premier League are now under threat from Haaland, who has showcased his extraordinary talent. Haaland shattered Shearer’s 100-goal record, reaching the milestone in just 111 matches, breaking it by 13 games. He looks well on his way to claiming his third Premier League Golden Boot in what is only his fourth season in the league.
Although Haaland has a way to go to surpass Shearer’s overall tally of 260 Premier League goals, he is already facing off against 33 players who have more goals than him in the league. However, with a scoring rate of 0.9 goals per league game since joining City, it may not be long before he finds himself atop the all-time list.