Right in his first season playing for Man City, striker Erling Haaland has achieved success in the Premier League. However, he still has to work hard to achieve the extraordinary achievement established by Dixie Dean nearly 100 years ago.
How excellent is Haaland?
Just wet feet to the land of fog, the Norwegian striker born in 2000 has scored 14 goals in the first 8 matches for Man City in the Premier League. Including 2 consecutive hat-tricks made in matches against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest.
Having “shot” 25 times after 19 rounds, the question is not whether Haaland can break the record of 34 goals per season in the Premier League of Andy Cole and Alan Shearer. What the public cares about is when he will do it.
Who is the best scorer in Premier League history?
As a key link in helping Everton win the No. 1 league in England in the 1927/28 season, striker William Ralph Dean (commonly known as Dixie Dean) has set a record of 60 goals per season. At the time, the league had 42 rounds and Dixie Dean had missed three games throughout the season.
In an interview, Dixie Dean once shared: “People ask if my record can be broken or not? I think yes, but the person who does this must be able to walk on water. “.
Haaland’s scoring speed is no less than Dixie Dean
In the 1925/26 season, Blackburn Rovers striker Ted Harper won the title of top scorer in England’s No. 1 league with 43 goals. This is a very respectable achievement, but Harper’s record was broken by Dixie Dean just two years later. Statistically, during the period 3 years before and 3 years after Dixie Dean set the record, the average number of goals for the top scorers in the First Division was 40.
Thus, it can be seen that scoring a goal nearly a century ago was not too difficult. However, Dixie Dean still proved too outstanding because the person with the second best record after him, Tom Waring, also “only” scored 49 goals for Aston Villa in the 1930/31 season (equal to 81% of Dixie Dean’s goals). ).
After that, the milestone of 40 goals/season became more difficult to conquer. The last person to reach this milestone was Jimmy Greaves and that was more than 60 years ago. Going back to Haaland and Dixie Dean, this out-of-age couple has a striking resemblance. Indeed, both scored in the first round and achieved a record of 12 goals in the 8th round.
By the 19th game, while Haaland scored 25 goals, this number with Dixie Dean had increased to 30. If Dixie Dean had played the entire season, his number of goals would have been even more terrible. It should be known, one of the three matches that Dixie Dean did not attend was the match his team beat West Ham 7-0 at Goodison Park. When Dixie Dean’s teammates compete with each other to tear the opponent’s net so easily, it is likely that he can do the same when on the field.
After “nothing” for 3 consecutive matches, Dixie Dean has scored 17 goals in the last 8 rounds to reach 60 goals. Because the Premier League now has only 38 rounds, not 42 like before, even if Haaland scores regularly like Dixie Dean, it will be difficult for him to keep up with his predecessor’s “unprecedented” achievement.
When will Haaland catch up with Salah?
If counted in the Premier League period with 38 rounds, Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah is the record holder for the number of goals scored in a season (he scored 32 goals / 36 matches in 2017/18 season). Thus, Haaland must score 7 more goals to catch up with the Egyptian striker. This is not too big of a challenge for Haaland, because according to the BBC’s calculations, as long as he maintains his current scoring performance, right from the 27th round he will get the same number of goals as Salah.
