Haaland reaches 100 Premier League goals faster than anyone in history

Erling Haaland scored in the 17th minute against Fulham on December 2, and the goal itself was almost secondary to what it represented. It was his 100th Premier League goal, reached in just 111 appearances, a pace so absurd it makes every other striker in English football history look like they were playing in slow motion. Alan Shearer held the previous record at 124 games. Haaland beat it by 13. For context, that’s roughly a third of a season’s worth of matches fewer. Shearer’s record stood for decades. Haaland dismantled it in about two and a half years. The goal and the chaos that followed The strike came courtesy of a Jeremy Doku cross, with Haaland doing what Haaland does: finding the right spot before anyone else realizes it exists, then finishing with the kind of clinical precision that makes defending look like a conceptual art project. The goal put City on their way in what turned out to be one of the wilder scorelines of the season. Manchester City eventually won 5-4 against Fulham, a result that reads less like a Premier League match and more like a particularly chaotic five-a-side game. City were cruising at 5-1 before Fulham decided the script was boring and scored thr...