Haaland breaks City’s record; Arsenal victory

Erling Haaland stole another goalscoring record from Argentinian Sergio Agüero with Manchester City.

At this rate, others will continue to fall.

With a goal in Saturday’s 4-1 win over Bournemouth in the Premier League, Haaland reached his 27th of the season. It is the record for all players in a single campaign for City since the league started in 1992.

Agüero had the previous mark of 26 and which he set in the 2014–15 season, part of his record 260 goals for City in all competitions.

The most shocking thing is that Haaland still has 14 league games to play. It’s close to Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah’s record 32 goals in a 38-match season, as well as Andy Cole and Alan Shearer’s 34 goals in 42 match seasons.

Haaland won’t have goals as easy as the one he scored three yards from goal at the Vitality Stadium as City won easily and closed in on Arsenal in the title fight.

Hours earlier, Arsenal had beaten Leicester 1-0, a more powerful result than the scoreboard suggested.

The Gunners remain two points clear of City, who are second with one game more.

There were further changes at the bottom of the table, with wins for Leeds and West Ham moving both sides out of the relegation zone, while Everton and Bournemouth fell to the bottom.

EASY FOR ARSENAL

It looks like Arsenal have overcome the bad moment.

Since taking just one point from three games and leading City back into contention for the title, Arsenal have won back-to-back wins on the road.

Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli scored in the 46th minute after an assist from Leandro Trossard. Goals from Trossard and Bukayo Saka were disallowed.

“Sometimes the wave is created very far from the beach,” said coach Mikel Arteta. “So it’s hard to avoid what’s going to happen. We needed to improve on those things and today we did really well.”

EASIER FOR THE CITY

Argentina’s Julian Álvarez and Phil Foden added more goals for City, while Chris Mepham’s own goal capped a solid night on the road.

However, it was the sixth game in a row where Pep Guardiola’s team conceded at least one goal, after Jefferson Lerma’s 83rd-minute shot.

HOME WINNER

Javi García started his reign at Leeds with the 1-0 victory against Southampton in a head-to-head duel.

Junior Firpo scored after 77 minutes to secure Leeds’ first win on 26 December. With the win, Leeds jumped two places and out of the relegation zone, while Southampton fell four points from permanence.

Bournemouth are penultimate on points with Everton, who lost 2-0 at home to Aston Villa.

West Ham started the third on the final day, but they crushed Nottingham Forest 4-0.

Later, Liverpool will face Crystal Palace.