Is Erling Haaland Carrying Man City? Premier League Teams Ranked by How Reliant They Are on One Player for Goals

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola annoyed Tottenham Hotspur somewhat in 2017 when he referred to them as “the Harry Kane team”.

Guardiola was called “disrespectful” for suggesting that Spurs were a one-man show.

But have Man City since become the “Erling Haaland team”? Haaland has scored 15 goals in 12 Premier League and Champions League matches this season.

City have only netted 23 times in those 12 games, meaning Haaland has scored 65.21% of his team’s goals across those two competitions.

His share of City’s Premier League goals is similar. A whopping 64.71% of City’s 17 league strikes so far have come courtesy of the record-breaking Haaland.

Is Erling Haaland Carrying Man City?

Is Erling Haaland carrying Man City? How reliant on one player for goals are the other 19 Premier League teams?

To find out, FootballBlog.co.uk has calculated the percentage of each club’s league goals scored by their leading marksman this season — revealing which sides are truly one-man attacks and which spread the goals around.

Premier League teams ranked by reliance on their top scorer

Club	Top Scorer (Goals)	Team Goals	% by Top Scorer	Different scorers (excluding OGs)
Man City	Haaland (11)	17	64.71%	5
Bournemouth	Semenyo (9)	16	56.25%	7
Newcastle	Woltemade (4)	9	44.44%	4
Brentford	Thiago (6)	14	42.86%	6
West Ham	Bowen (3)	7	42.86%	4
Crystal Palace	Mateta (5)	12	41.67%	6
Nottm Forest	Wood (2)	5	40.00%	4
Sunderland	Isidor (4)	11	36.36%	7
Brighton	Welbeck (5)	14	35.71%	10
Everton	Ndiaye (3)	9	33.33%	7
Burnley	Anthony (4)	12	33.33%	6
Man United	Mbeumo (4)	15	26.67%	7
Aston Villa	Buendia (2) / Cash (2) / Malen (2)	9	22.22%	6
Leeds United	Okafor (2) / Rodon (2)	9	22.22%	7
Arsenal	Gyokeres (3)	16	18.75%	11
Liverpool	Ekitike (3) / Salah (3) / Gakpo (3)	16	18.75%	8
Tottenham	Richarlison (3) / Van de Ven (3)	17	17.65%	9
Chelsea	Fernandez (3) / Caicedo (3)	17	17.65%	10
Wolves	6 players on 1 goal (plus 1 OG)	7	14.29%	6
Fulham	7 players on 1 goal (plus 2 OGs)	9	11.11%	7

Man City are the Premier League team most reliant on one player’s goals

Erling Haaland has scored 64.71% of Manchester City’s Premier League goals this season. The only other Premier League team to have relied on one player to score more than half of their goals so far is Bournemouth, with Antoine Semenyo bagging 56.25% of their 16 team strikes.

Including Haaland, Man City have had just five different Premier League scorers this season. The only sides with fewer individual scorers are Newcastle, West Ham and Nottingham Forest — all with four.

Arsenal are the team with the highest number of different scorers. The Gunners have spread their first 16 goals between 11 players, with Viktor Gyokeres their leading scorer on three. Despite him leading the club’s list of scorers, many fans seem unsure whether Arsenal are a better team with Viktor Gyokeres up front.

How Man City compare to Arsenal in terms of distribution of Premier League goals

What percentage of Man City’s goals have been scored by Erling Haaland since he arrived?

Erling Haaland has been Manchester City’s leading goalscorer in every season since joining from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2022, with his share of the team’s Premier League goals ranging from 28.13% to 38.30% across his first three full campaigns.

2022/23: Haaland scored 36 of Man City’s 94 Premier League goals (38.30%)
2023/24: Haaland scored 27 of Man City’s 96 Premier League goals (28.13%)
2024/25: Haaland scored 22 of Man City’s 72 Premier League goals (30.56%)

In total, Manchester City have scored 279 Premier League goals since signing Erling Haaland. Of those, he has scored 96, meaning Haaland has been responsible for 34.41% of City’s league goals since his arrival.

Where would Man City be in the Premier League table without Erling Haaland’s goals?

If you were to discount every goal scored by Erling Haaland this season, Manchester City would have 11 points from their first nine games rather than the 16 they have in reality. Eleven points would leave City in the bottom half of the table.

Without Haaland’s goals, City would have lost at Arsenal and drawn with Everton and Brentford.

Of course, that’s a gross oversimplification — if Haaland hadn’t been playing, another player might well have scored in those situations. However, the data clearly shows that Man City are currently more reliant on one goalscorer than any other Premier League team.