In Focus: Analysing Haaland's record-breaking season

Surely nobody thought it would be quite this simple for Erling Haaland to get up to speed at Manchester City.

Optimists believed that a team that created so many chances was a match made in heaven for a goalscoring obsessive.

But even their expectations must have been surpassed as the Norwegian smashed seemingly unbeatable individual records — as well as firing his team to a historic Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League Treble.

Here is a breakdown of everything that Haaland — still just 22 — has achieved in his memorable first season with the Citizens.

Fast start

It seems a long time ago that Haaland was mocked for missing an open goal against Liverpool in the Community Shield last August.

He rattled home a brace against West Ham on the opening weekend of the Premier League season just eight days later and has not looked back since.

The summer signing from Borussia Dortmund had scored nine goals after five Premier League games, breaking Micky Quinn and Sergio Aguero's joint record of eight.

And after 19 league matches, he had notched four hat-tricks — the fastest to that milestone by a whopping 46 outings.

City's No9 was also the fastest player to 25 goals under Pep Guardiola's tutelage, beating Lionel Messi (28) by eight games.

And he boosted his European legacy by becoming the fastest player to reach 30 Champions League strikes, doing so in his 25th tournament appearance as he put five past RB Leipzig in the last 16.

Spectacular season

Haaland has broken records that only he himself looks capable of usurping any time soon.

His tally of 52 goals for the campaign is the most by any Premier League player in all competitions, beating Mohamed Salah and Ruud van Nistelrooy (both 44).

The only player to top that number in the history of top-flight English football is Everton's Dixie Dean, who scored 63 times in 1927-28.

He also registered more Premier League strikes (36) than any player ever and the most in English football's top division since Ron Davies in in 1966-67.

His Premier League goals outnumbered the total tallies of both Everton and Wolves and he was only outscored by his team-mates 58-36.

Harry Kane was the only Premier League player to finish the season within 16 goals of the City man and only the England captain topped Haaland's tally for the calendar year of 2022, despite the latter not playing until August.

Hat-trick hero

Haaland's hat-trick records tell much of the story of his season alone.

He was the fastest player ever to reach three Premier League hat-tricks, as well as four, doing so when he put three past Manchester United in his eighth league appearance.

It took him just five league games to become the sixth Premier League player to score three goals in back-to-back appearances, while he also became the first man in the division's history to hit a treble in three straight home outings.

He has taken home the match ball on four occasions in the Premier League, surpassing the career tallies of Frank Lampard, Cristiano Ronaldo and several other English football all-timers.

Finally, that Leipzig haul meant he joined Messi as the only player to score a first-half Champions League knock-out hat-trick.