Haaland aiming to break 9-year Van Persie curse

Haaland aiming to break 9-year Van Persie curse

Faruq Ibrahim 12:52 - 14.05.2023

After a nine-year wait, Manchester City star Erling Haaland is on course to be the first to replicate Robin Van Persie's achievement.

Manchester City are currently at the top of the Premier League table, and charging behind them are the impressive Arsenal. 

Should they manage to defend their title, Erling Haaland will become the first player since Robin Van Persie to win the Premier League and the Golden Boot in the same season. 

Haaland on course for the double

Pep Guardiola's side are on the path to a rare treble, and achieving that will help their Norwegian striker to a personal double of his own. 

Having played two fewer games than Harry Kane's Tottenham, the former Dortmund striker has scored eight more goals than the England international, who is currently his closest rival in the golden boot race. 

var widgetLoaderConfig = widgetLoaderConfig || { CDN_URL: 'https://widgets.sportal365.com', APP_LINK: 'desktop', API_URL: 'https://africa.football.api.sportal365.com/', API_KEY: '2f852b4de2f3a5cf3188e74b33087bb4:2c18422f8e826a7d11aeed52edb2449e', LANG: 'en', REQUEST_INTERVAL: 30, ENABLE_BET_SLIP: false, AUTHOR: false, THEME: "light", TOURNAMENT_ORDER: "pulse_nigeria", LINK_OPTIONS_V2: { 'player' : { 'url': '/football/player/{playerId}' }, 'team' : { 'url': '/football/{teamId}' }, 'tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}' }, 'match': { 'url' : '/football/match/{matchId}', 'sort': { 'criteria': 'alphabetically', 'direction': 'asc' } }, 'configuration': { 'newWindow': false }, 'standings_tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}/standings' } } }; if (!document.querySelector('script[src="https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js"]')) { window.setTimeout(function () { let scriptCss = document.createElement('link'); scriptCss.href = 'https://www.pulsesports.co.ke/css/sport-widgets.css?v=1668785443'; scriptCss.rel = 'stylesheet'; scriptCss.type = 'text/css'; document.body.appendChild(scriptCss); let scriptTag = document.createElement('script'); scriptTag.src = 'https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js'; scriptTag.defer = true; scriptTag.onload = function () { window.setTimeout(function () { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }, 200); }; document.head.appendChild(scriptTag); }, 0); } else { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }

Haaland is set to win the top scorer trophy in record fashion in only his first season in England. However, winning the Premier League along with it rarifies his season even more in recent Premier League history. 

Since Van Persie led the red half of Manchester to the Premier League trophy in the 2012/13 season, no other player has won the league and Golden Boot in the same season. Haaland is in line to end the nine-year wait.  

The games remaining for Manchester City

With Champions League commitments and the FA Cup final on the horizon, the former Salzburg striker could be subject to the famous Pep roulette; however, the margin he has opened on second place should be enough to win the golden boot. 

City, on the other hand, need only nine more points to be crowned Premier League champions, and they have four games left to achieve it. 

They travel to Goodison Park later today to face Everton, before playing Chelsea, Brighton and Brentford.

Related content