Erling Haaland has broken his umpteenth record since arriving in the Premier League and donning a Manchester City shirt, becoming the fastest player to reach 100 goals in the competition.
Let’s be honest, are any of us surprised?
While yet another goal from Haaland and entering himself into the 100 club was a notable narrative on the night, the real headline, however, was that scoreline, as City barely escaped by the skin of their teeth.
Despite persisting questions surrounding the Blues’ defence, it was nevertheless a landmark moment for the Norwegian number nine, who remains the most prolific striker on the planet. Here’s how he did it:
Commenting on the achievement on social media, the big blonde bagsman simply wrote, “When football takes you to places you could never have imagined” – signing off with a ‘100’ emoji, of course.
Despite it being reiterated that he doesn’t think too much about the various milestones he continues to surpass with each passing game, he admitted he knew about this particular one and was visibly chuffed with being in such good company.
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For context, it took Haaland 111 matches to score his 100th goal in the division, which is 13 appearances quicker than the next fastest Premier League legend, Alan Shearer, who took 124 games to reach the tally when the modern era of the top flight first began three decades ago.
You can see who else has achieved the feat and how fast here:
Even more impressively, this wasn’t the only rather incredible statistic that came from the fixture either, as he walked away with a frankly ridiculous bit of pedigree among the strikers’ union.
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As well as his opening goal, which well and truly opened the floodgates (at both ends, as it turned out), Haaland was caught offside in a PL away game for the first time in more than TWO whole years, the last occasion being against Sheffield United in August 2023.
To quote a post we saw on X, “Do you know how crazy a stat this is?…”
If you didn’t manage to catch the game on Tuesday night, we seriously recommend you watch the many highlights from the win over Fulham down below.
Details released of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners while Mayor
Emily Sergeant
Details of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester have been released.
In case you need bringing up to speed on the situation a little first, Manchester City was found guilty back in September all of its charges related to the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and on top of that, was also found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, the independent Commission found that Manchester City had arranged so-called ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors.
These were part of a disguised funding scheme – with those sponsors only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The remainder was then funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
The Commission also concluded, as quoted by the Premier League, that the club had ‘made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation’.
Within the past week or so, it has since come to light that now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham had dealings with Manchester City during his tenure as Greater Manchester Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now issued a public statement, giving details on the matter and what these ‘dealings’ entailed.
A spokesperson for GMCA confirmed that Burnham had a ‘formal meeting’ with Man City Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, back in October 2021.
The statement reads in full: “In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.
“In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the Chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as Mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of Mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Featured Image – Lauren Hurley / Number 10 Downing Street (Press Image via Flickr)
Sport
Multiple arrests made for ‘tragedy chanting’ and police officer assault as Man City defeated Liverpool
Emily Sergeant
Multiple people were arrested over the weekend as Manchester City defeated Liverpool in a Premier League clash.
Merseyside Police have confirmed that a total of 10 people were arrested during the policing operation at Liverpool’s home ground of Anfield as they hosted Manchester City on Sunday 11 October.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police constable, five were on suspicion of tragedy chanting, one on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, two for affray, and one on suspicion of throwing items onto the pitch.
Police are now appealing to the public, and are particularly looking to speak to witnesses of the assault of the officer.
At around 6:35pm, as fans left the stadium, a police officer sustained a ‘serious facial injury’ during the arrest of a man on Anfield Road, and was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment but is now recovering at home.
Investigating officers are now conducting enquiries, speaking to witnesses, and analysing CCTV and camera phone footage.
Chief Inspector Leanne Hobin said it’s ‘extremely disappointing’ that an officer has sustained a serious injury while carrying out their duty.
“I hope the arrests send a clear message and act as a deterrent to others,” Chief Inspector Hobin continued. “Anyone who engages in this abhorrent behaviour risks ending up in custody and getting a criminal record.
“Despite the actions of a few, the overwhelming majority of the 60,000 fans in attendance behaved well and I want to thank them for their co-operation.”
Manchester City ended up defeated Liverpool 3-0 during the Premier League clash at Anfield.