Erling Haaland Completes Premier League Goal Record Against All Teams
Erling Haaland left the Etihad on Sunday with another piece of Premier League history tucked under his arm.
One late touch, one sliding finish, and a nagging gap in his record finally closed.
Haaland’s full house
Until the 81st minute of Manchester City’s wild 5-3 win over Sunderland, Haaland had one Premier League blind spot. He’d faced them twice, played 159 minutes, taken three shots. No goals. For a striker who treats this league like his personal scoring range, Sunderland had become an awkward outlier.
Then came the familiar scene. Haaland attacking the back post, stretching to meet a low ball and forcing it over the line. Relief, roar, routine. Almost.
He had to wait.
Just as in last week’s Manchester derby, the goal went to VAR. Just as in last week’s derby, the decision was overturned in his favour. Goal given. Sunderland ticked off. The collection complete – at least for now.
Since his Premier League debut in August 2022, Haaland has faced 25 different clubs. He has scored against all 25.
Some he has simply tormented.
He’s hit 11 goals against West Ham in just eight games, turning them into one of his favourite targets. Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton Wanderers have each shipped 10 to him, from six and seven matches respectively. Manchester United know the feeling: nine goals in eight league derbies.
Others have learned more slowly, but still painfully. Fulham have conceded eight to him across eight games. Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion have each seen him score seven times. Arsenal, the side most often cast as City’s title rivals, have been breached six times by the Norwegian in eight league meetings.
Burnley, Brentford and Nottingham Forest have all been hit for five. Ipswich Town have already taken four from just two games. Southampton, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth also sit in the “four conceded” column.
Even the bigger fixtures haven’t slowed him much. He has three goals against Liverpool from six league clashes, and three against Leicester City from only two.
Lower down the list, but still checked off: two goals against Leeds United in three games. Single strikes against Sheffield United, Luton Town, Coventry City, Sunderland, Aston Villa and Newcastle United round out the current set.
Every team he’s faced. Every one scored against.
The next test: Hull City
That perfect record comes with a small asterisk. Haaland hasn’t yet played Hull City in the Premier League.
That changes in City’s final league game before Christmas, currently set for 19 December. If he features and finds the net, the numbers move again: 26 teams faced, 26 scored against. The 100% record lives on. If he doesn’t, Hull become the new Sunderland – the new itch he has to scratch.
This is the kind of detail that starts to matter when you score as relentlessly as he does. The individual opponents, the completist streak, the sense that no club is safe.
Kane, and a very short list
Haaland is not alone in this particular club, but the membership is tiny.
Harry Kane is the only other player to have played more than one Premier League game and scored against every team he faced. During his time with Tottenham Hotspur, he found the net against all 32 different opponents he met in the competition.
He’s building something similar in Germany. Since joining Bayern Munich, Kane has scored against 21 of the 22 teams he has faced in the Bundesliga. Only Schalke 04, from a single game, have kept him out so far.
There is an even more obscure group: Aidan Newhouse, Gary Bull, Chris David and Josh Harrop. All four boast a perfect Premier League record against every opponent they faced, but each of them played just once in the competition. One game, one set of opponents, one goal. Perfect, but on a tiny scale.
Haaland’s streak sits in a very different category: sustained, repeated, ruthless.
Lampard’s mark still stands
For all that, Haaland is still chasing the giants of the league’s long history.
Frank Lampard holds the record for scoring against the most different Premier League clubs. The former Chelsea and West Ham midfielder struck against 39 separate teams across his career. Andrew Cole sits just behind on 38, with Jermain Defoe and all-time Premier League top scorer Alan Shearer each on 37.
Haaland is miles away from those totals for now. But he is only in his third Premier League season. The pace at which he is ticking off opponents suggests those numbers won’t look quite so distant if he stays in England long term.
On Sunday, he walked off the Etihad pitch having finally solved Sunderland and completed his current set. Hull City wait in December. Beyond that, a league’s worth of records still lie in front of him.
How many more badges will he stitch onto this growing collection before he’s done with the Premier League?
