Erling Haaland Completes Premier League Hit List

Erling Haaland finally ticked off the last name on his Premier League hit list.

The Manchester City striker’s late goal in Sunday’s wild 5-3 win over Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium means he has now scored against every single one of the 25 teams he has faced in the competition since arriving in August 2022.

It took him a while to get there. And it clearly bothered him.

Sunderland, finally broken

Across his first two Premier League meetings with Sunderland, Haaland drew a blank. Three shots, 159 minutes, no goal. For a striker who has chewed through almost everyone else in the division, they had become an awkward outlier.

On Sunday, as the game ticked into the final 10 minutes, that streak looked like it might stretch on. Then came the familiar scene.

Haaland slid in at the back post in the 81st minute, turning in what looked like a routine striker’s finish but, for him, a significant one. Sunderland were off the list. All 25 faced, all 25 scored against.

Not that he could celebrate straight away. Just as in last week’s Manchester derby, his finish was initially ruled out before VAR stepped in and awarded the goal. The delay only underlined the sense that this one mattered a little more than most.

A Premier League hit list

Haaland’s record reads like a striker’s scrapbook of damage.

• He has brutalised West Ham more than anyone: 11 goals in eight games.
• Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton Wanderers have each taken 10 in six and seven matches respectively.
• Manchester United have felt it too. Nine goals in eight derbies.
• Fulham have shipped eight in eight.
• Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion sit on seven each, from six and seven games.
• Arsenal have been on the receiving end six times in eight meetings.
• Burnley, Brentford and Nottingham Forest have each conceded five Premier League goals to Haaland.
• Ipswich Town stand out for efficiency: four goals in just two matches.
• Southampton, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth have all seen him score four as well, though over more games.
• Leicester City and Liverpool have each conceded three.
• Leeds United have given up two.

At the other end of the scale are the one-goal clubs: Sheffield United, Luton Town, Coventry City, Sunderland, Aston Villa and Newcastle United. For most strikers, even that list would be a career.

For Haaland, it’s the bottom rung.

Record perfect – for now

This perfect record comes with a caveat. It only holds for the teams he has actually faced.

Hull City are next. Haaland has never played them in the Premier League, and City are due to meet the Tigers in their final league game before Christmas on 19 December. If he features and scores, the list moves to 26 out of 26. Miss, and the 100% mark goes.

History says you would not bet against him.

Kane, and the company Haaland keeps

Only one other player with more than a single Premier League appearance has managed to score against every opponent they faced: Harry Kane.

The former Tottenham Hotspur forward, now at Bayern Munich, found the net against all 32 clubs he played against in the Premier League. He is close to repeating the trick in Germany. Since joining Bayern, the England captain has scored against 21 of the 22 teams he has faced in the Bundesliga, with only Schalke 04 keeping him out, and that from just one game.

There is a smaller, quirkier group who also boast a perfect record, albeit on a technicality. Aidan Newhouse, Gary Bull, Chris David and Josh Harrop each scored in their only Premier League appearance, leaving them with a 100% strike rate against every opponent they faced in the competition.

Haaland’s sample size, of course, tells a very different story.

The bigger mountain ahead

For all the perfection of his current record, Haaland is still some distance from the Premier League benchmark for variety of victims.

Frank Lampard sits alone at the top of that list, having scored against 39 different clubs in his long career. Andrew Cole follows on 38, with Jermain Defoe and all-time Premier League top scorer Alan Shearer each on 37.

Haaland’s total of 25 is impressive given the short time frame, but it underlines how far he has to go to match the longevity and breadth of those careers.

The question now is simple: with his collection already complete for the teams he has met, how many more names can Erling Haaland add before he is done with this league?