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Erling Haaland is in amazing goalscoring form for Manchester City and Norway and he could claim another Premier League record this weekend.
Erling Haaland could take one of Alan Shearer's Premier League records from him in his own backyard tonight. If the Norwegian scores for Manchester City against Newcastle at St James' Park, he will become the fastest player to 100 goals in the top-flight.
Even if the Magpies become just the third team in 21 games for club and country to stop Haaland from scoring this season, it is only a matter of time until Shearer's name is scrubbed from this particular page of the history books. Shearer brought up his century in 124 games. On Saturday, Haaland will play his 109th Premier League match.
That means he has until Fulham's visit to the Etihad on February 11 to get the goal he requires to take the record. At his current rate of finding the back of the net, Haaland will be well past his 100 by the time he opens his Christmas presents.
But that isn't the only record of Shearer's that Haaland is eyeing up. He admitted earlier this month that the former Newcastle striker's Premier League record tally of 260 goals was one of the few numbers he did know off the top of his head, and if he sees out his nine-year contract at the Etihad, he will surely shatter that as well.
Pep Guardiola believes Haaland will inevitably challenge those sorts of numbers if he stays at City, but reserved praise for Shearer and the standards he set while generally playing for less fashionable teams during his Premier League career.
"It would be good because that means he's scored goals," Guardiola said of the record. "Alan Shearer has been so far the greatest top scorer in this league and whatever happens with Erling in his career here, Alan Shearer will still be top.
"His (Shearer's) quality to score goals in big teams (Blackburn and Newcastle), but not maybe in teams to win. He won the Premier League, but not in the teams that everybody knows."
Shearer brought up his record across 14 Premier League seasons, scoring 20 goals or more in half of them, and the ability to do it over a long period of time is what sets strikers like that apart, according to Guardiola.
"The guys who have been making numbers for a long time, not just one or two seasons, I always admire them because it means resilience and being there every season, season, season," he said.
"They don't score goals for one season. They do it over a lot of seasons and that means being incredibly focused, professional and you have to love the game. I think for Erling to be there with Alan Shearer is really good for both of them.
"You don't have to know mathematics to realise that if he stays a long, long time and continues this average, he will be close to Harry Kane and close to Alan Shearer, that's for sure."
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