Erling Haaland secured a third Premier League Golden Boot in four seasons at Manchester City on Sunday, even though he did not take part in Pep Guardiola’s final match at the Etihad Stadium.
Key takeaways
- Haaland won the Premier League Golden Boot for the third time in four seasons with Manchester City.
- He was left out of the City squad for the 2-1 home loss to Aston Villa during Guardiola’s farewell game.
- The striker finished with 27 league goals from 35 appearances as City narrowly missed out on denying Arsenal the title.
- Brentford’s Igor Thiago placed second with 22 goals, earning him a place in Brazil’s World Cup squad.
- Haaland’s season featured a mid-campaign dip, followed by decisive strikes late on, including goals versus Liverpool and Arsenal.
Golden Boot achievement despite Guardiola’s final day
Haaland was omitted from the Manchester City matchday group for the team’s 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa, a result that came as the club marked Pep Guardiola’s trophy-filled decade-long spell with the manager’s last appearance in charge.
In league play, the Norwegian forward found the net 27 times across 35 Premier League matches, a tally that ultimately fell just short of City’s objective to stop Arsenal from winning the competition.
With the latest award, Haaland joins Alan Shearer and Harry Kane as three-time Golden Boot winners, while he remains behind Mohamed Salah and Thierry Henry for the all-time record of four Premier League Golden Boot triumphs.
Thiago second and a season shaped by early brilliance and late surge
Igor Thiago of Brentford finished runner-up to Haaland with 22 goals. That output helped earn him selection for Brazil ahead of the World Cup.
Haaland’s campaign started at a ferocious pace, with 19 of his league strikes coming in his first 17 Premier League matches, underlining how quickly he established himself as the focal point of City’s attack.
That impact was also highlighted during a rare period of inconsistency, when City’s title challenge arguably lost momentum without his usual level of output.
Across a spell around the turn of the year, Haaland scored only once—converting a penalty against Brighton—in seven games. During that stretch, City managed just two wins.
However, the 25-year-old returned to top form late in the season, scoring the winning goal away to Liverpool and also finding the net against Arsenal in a match widely framed as a title-decider last month.
Even with goals in both of those fixtures, City still dropped points at Everton and Bournemouth, allowing Arsenal to be crowned Premier League champions for the first time in 22 years.
