Fact or Fiction? 7 Erling Haaland stats to test your knowledge of the striker’s Dream Team campaign
YES, it's another article about Erling Haaland (£9.6m).
But with good reason; the Norwegian poacher's first season in English football has been truly extraordinary and nobody knows this better than Dream Team gaffers.
But how well do you really know the mind-blowing numbers propping up this historic campaign?
Time for a quiz...
Here we will present seven stats and all you have to do is separate the fact from the fiction before scrolling down a little further to find out the answer.
1. Haaland has scored more Premier League goals than Chelsea this season
ANSWER: FACT
Manchester City's No9 has bagged 32 in the top flight at this stage which is two more than the Blues have mustered as a collective.
This is truly incredible when consider how much Todd Boehly (and his predecessor) forked out to assemble the squad at Stamford Bridge which includes Raheem Sterling (£3.8m), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£3.5m), Kai Havertz (£3.8m), Hakim Ziyech (£2.2m), Joao Felix (£3.5m) and several other highly-rated attackers.
2. Nobody has ever scored more goals in a Premier League season than Haaland has in 2022/23
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ANSWER: FICTION
When the 22-year-old notched his 32nd league goal he drew level with Mohamed Salah (£8.3m) for most goals in a 38-game campaign but he still needs two more to equal Alan Shearer and Andy Cole's record of 34, both achieved when there were 22 teams in the division.
Of course, the key factor to consider here is that Haaland potentially has eight more fixtures at his disposal and so he's likely to breeze past the legendary English strikers of old and break new ground in the coming weeks.
3. Haaland has earned more points from his last five games than Aleksandar Mitrovic (£3.8m) has produced all season
ANSWER: FACT
Barring disciplinary issues, it's generally accepted that Fulham's No9 has been an effective target man for the Cottagers during their impressive return to the top flight.
Mitrovic averages a league goal every 165.5 minutes this term and his performances, particularly in the first half of the season, are a big reason Marco Silva's side look set for a top half finish.
And yet his overall Dream Team tally of 96 points fails to match the 101 Haaland has plundered since March 14th!
4. Haaland averages over twice as many points-per-game as the next-best Dream Team's asset this season
ANSWER: FICTION
The Etihad's resident cyborg averages 9.8 points-per-game which is remarkable when you consider a goal and a 7+ rating returns eight points.
This average puts him in a league of his own but it's not quite double that of Marcus Rashford (£7.1m) who has ticked along at 5.8 points-per-game to amass 274 overall, a massive total by non-Haaland standards.
However, Haaland's average is comfortably double that of Bruno Fernandes (£6.4m, 4.4 points-per-game) which is saying something given the Portugal international is the best midfielder in the game right now.
5. Haaland is on track to post the highest season points tally in Dream Team history
ANSWER: FACT
Assuming Man City are able to convert their 3-0 first leg lead over Bayern Munich into an aggregate victory then Haaland will have at least two more Champions League fixtures on top of eight league games and whatever minutes he'll get in the FA Cup semi-final/final.
If he maintains his current average of 9.8 points-per-game then he will go past Cristiano Ronaldo's record of 477, achieved in 2007/08, a campaign that won the Portuguese superstar his first Ballon d'Or.
93 points is a tough ask in the given time frame but given he's added a century across the last five Game Weeks, it's well within Haaland's grasp.
6. Haaland has more points than Harry Kane (£8.5m) and Ollie Watkins (£6.1m) combined
ANSWER: FACT
This stats underlines just how far the Norway international has ventured into the realms of the absurd because by normal standards both Kane and Watkins have been excellent.
The two Englishmen have 37 goals between them in the Premier League alone (23 for Kane, 14 for Watkins) and are fourth and seventh in the Dream Team forward rankings respectively.
And yet somehow their combined points tally of 376 is eight short of Haaland's at this late juncture.
7. Right now, Haaland is the most-popular player in Dream Team history
ANSWER: FICTION
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While his ownership of 74% is gargantuan, it falls just short of the peak Bruno Fernandes achieved a couple of seasons back.
We're guessing that those who went without Haaland at the start of the season gave up hope pretty quickly...