Erling Haaland takes the lead – Kommersant
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The phenomenal Norwegian scorer Erling Haaland set a new record for the number of goals in the championship of the English Premier League (EPL). The one he scored against West Ham at home was Haaland’s 35th. And the Manchester City forward’s 3-0 home victory seems to have brought him very close to the league title.
The match against West Ham allowed Erling Haaland god knows how many times in recent months to be the main character of almost all major British media resources. Well, or at least their sports sections. The reason was too obvious. In the middle of the second half, Haaland received a pass from Jack Grealish and, having thrown the goalkeeper of the London club Lukasz Fabyansky, made the score 2:0, essentially finishing off the guests. And it was the 35th goal of the 22-year-old Norwegian in the current championship.
In England, they love all sorts of statistical records. And the record for the number of goals in the football championship, of course, is one of the most catchy, if not the most catchy. So, if we talk about the championship of the English Premier League, created in 1992, then it lasted a very, very long time. 29 years ago, Newcastle striker Andy Cole scored 34 league goals. A year later, the famous Alan Shearer, who played for Blackburn, scored the same amount. Since then, outstanding strikers who have regularly found themselves on the Premier League’s top teams have managed at best to get close to the bar set by Cole and Shearer. And the fact that the Premier League itself has shrunk in size has complicated its assault – instead of 22 clubs, as in the days of the previous record holders, it now plays 20. Consequently, the number of matches that each of them plays in the tournament has decreased by four.
But for the wunderkind, so successfully acquired by Manchester City in the summer of 2022 from Borussia Dortmund, this did not become an obstacle. Moreover, he beat the achievements of Cole and Shearer, one might say, with a margin.
Manchester City have five more matches on the league calendar. And Manchester head coach Pep Guardiola, commenting on the exploits of Erling Haaland, also recalled with a smile that he actually changed him several times during the matches, if their fate had already been decided.
And in this list there are even matches in which Haaland managed to score a hat-trick before going to rest on the bench. That is, Guardiola meant, if he suddenly decided not to spare the football diamond that fell into his hands, then there would be more goals. Although Haaland’s average performance is the envy of any hockey sniper: three and a half dozen goals in 31 championship meetings.
Naturally, all leading publications, all Internet sites after the Manchester City game with West Ham were full of statements from various celebrities from the world of football, illustrating their absolutely sincere admiration for Erling Haaland’s talent, his instinct, his ability to choose the right position. And the most extraordinary compliment, it seems, was given to him by The Guardian. Her column proposes to imagine a situation in which, during the previous off-season, Manchester City, in search of the missing Pep Guardiola, in order to finally succeed not only on the domestic fronts, but also in the Champions League (and in it the club is waiting for the first semi-final match next week with “Real Madrid”), the element is taken not by Holanna, but by some other simpler striker, and he, unable to adapt to the style of the team, to the density of the struggle in the Premier League, does not score at all. Well, there are some failures. So, if we remove all the goals scored by Haaland from the list of Manchester goals, correct the results of the championship matches, “minus” them, it turns out that after the autumn part of the championship, suffering defeats from Newcastle, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, with with which in reality Manchester City scored points, losing them in meetings won in reality against Manchester United, Brighton, Fulham, he would lag behind the top ten of the championship and by the middle of it would have meager chances to break through at least in the Champions League zone. The experiment, of course, is not ideally “pure”, but still demonstrates the significance of Haaland’s gift for team success.
And so, having won against West Ham, Manchester City, apparently, came close to the third league title in a row. Formally, Arsenal’s only rival in the “golden race” behind him is minimal – only one point. But, firstly, Manchester has a match in hand, and secondly, you need to look at the list of his remaining opponents. He is terribly modest – Leeds, Everton, Brighton, Brentford and the crisis Chelsea.
English Championship
Postponed matches of the 28th round
Liverpool-Fulham 1-0 (Salah, 39 (pen.)). Manchester City 3-0 West Ham (Ake 50; Haaland 70; Foden 85).
Command position. 1. Manchester City – 79 points (after 33 matches). 2. Arsenal – 78 (34). 3. Newcastle – 65 (33). 4. Manchester United – 63 (32). 5. Liverpool – 59 (34). 6. Tottenham – 54 (34). 7. Aston Villa – 54 (34). 8. Brighton – 52 (31).
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