50 Goals in a Season

On this day (30 April) in 2023 Erling Haaland became the first Manchester City player ever to score 50 goals in a season when he scored a 3rd minute penalty (awarded for a foul on Alvarez) against Fulham. Haaland converted the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom right corner. Not only was this his 50th competitive goal of the season but it was also his 34th Premier League goal, which equalled the record seasonal Premier League tally. The record had been held by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer.

City ended up winning the game 2-1 with World Cup winner Julian Alvarez scoring the second for the Blues with a 25 yard strike in the 36th minute. That victory put City top, overtaking Arsenal. The Blues were on 76 points from 32 games while Arsenal were a point behind and had played one further game.

After the match manager Pep Guardiola was told by a journalist that Haaland had now scored the most goals by a top-flight player for 92 years (Tom ‘Pongo’ Waring reached 50 for Aston Villa in 1930-31) when Ramsay MacDonald was the Prime Minister. Pep responded: ‘Before Winston Churchill was prime minister? Wow. Sounds a long time ago.’

He added: ‘Congratulations to Erling. The best goals to help us achieve what we want is still [to come] there. I was really impressed that he took the penalty with the strong mentality he has.’