Erling Haaland hit his 50th goal of the season for Manchester City in the 2-1 win over Fulham, leading to Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville raving about him the following day on his podcast.
The Norwegian took just minutes to find the back of the net at Craven Cottage.
Julian Alvarez – who was magnificent all game – was taken down in the area by Tim Ream for a stonewall penalty.
And it was Haaland who stepped up, despite Riyad Mahrez taking and scoring City’s last.
He drilled it into the bottom corner, and that was goal number 50 of a truly outstanding season from the 22-year-old.
Everyone knew that he would score goals when he joined City. It was inevitable given the rate at which the team creates chances under Pep Guardiola.
But few really imagined he would be racking up numbers like this.
He may be world-class, but he’s still come to a new league and is still only 22 years old.
But he has made the Premier League his playground. And it is scary to think what kind of level he could be at in a few years.
On Sunday, Sky pundit Neville was speaking about the weekend’s action from the Premier League. And he touched on Haaland’s exploits this season. And you could see he is running out of superlatives for him.
Shaking his head in disbelief as Martin Tyler started to talk about his 50-goal feat, Neville said: “I like Manchester City’s style of play now in this team more than I have done for the last four or five years under Pep Guardiola because of Erling Haaland
“He’s that powerhouse, the imperfection of some of his touches, some of his play. I know that sounds really sort of derogatory in some ways but it does bounce off him sometimes.
“He’s a bit imperfect, he does take risks. It’s not as subtle and as precise as the rest of the player in the team who have all got this perfect technical ability. But he’s a battering ram of a centre-forward.
“He’s got a brilliant finish, and is something really special. If you’re watching him play, you are watching something unique. I do think there is a world star here.
“Erling Haaland is… he’s got the finishing of [Harry] Kane, the power of [Wayne] Rooney, he’s unbelievable. He’s unbelievable, even the Brazilian Ronaldo, the power he used to have when he ran, the explosion off the mark.
“He’s almost like four players in one.”
Erling Haaland has changed the game for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola as Gary Neville lavishes praise
So it’s now 50 goals for Haaland, which is a truly incredible accomplishment.
He may have arrived at the Etihad as one of the game’s most fearsome strikers. But, in theory, it still takes time for even top-class players to settle in at new clubs and learn a new way of playing.
But he’s come in and hit the ground running.
It was ludicrous to think that just because there was a slow start this season that City were a worse outfit with Haaland in the team.
The people that were saying that have now gone very quiet, with Haaland breaking all kinds of records in his debut season.
