Erling Haaland broke Alan Shearer's long-standing record for the fastest player to reach 100 Premier League goals, requiring 13 games fewer than the former England international. Although his Manchester City journey has been success-laden, it wasn't without its question marks at the outset.

A couple of years before his arrival, a City legend was falling out with Pep Guardiola, as the Spanish manager's ever-evolving tactical game turned from traditional strikers, with a false nine becoming his preference.

To introduce the desired unpredictability, the manager felt he must move away from the traditional centre-forward profile. A player whose effectiveness is concentrated solely in the box based on No. 9 traits, and does not offer the necessary tactical variation.

Nevertheless, Sergio Aguero was not just one of the greatest strikers of his time, he doubles as Manchester City's all-time leading goalscorer by some distance, with well over 100 goals more than the late Joe Hayes, who comes next in the list with 146 goals.

Pep Guardiola made a tough decision to play Gabriel Jesus, who is the more ball-playing striker, and it worked. This led to rifts between the manager and the striker, as he continued to get overlooked by the Spaniard.

City thrived with Gabriel Jesus or anyone else as the false nine, which made a lot of fans and pundits raise eyebrows when agreement was reached for Erling Haaland in the wake of Aguero's departure.

Many had thought the former Barcelona manager would not want to move for a traditional No.9 in the future, but the lure of Erling Haaland became too much for the genius, or maybe the thought of him playing for a rival influenced the decision.

Haaland was already a superstar at Dortmund. His ridiculous goal-scoring abilities have earned him a lot of suitors, with European heavyweights like Bayern Munich, Barcelona, and Manchester United all keen on his signature.

But Manchester City was always going to have the edge due to the history with his father Alfie, and the world-class environment created by Pep Guardiola, where there await machineries to help unlock more of his potential.

And with his hunger and endless knack for goalscoring, Haaland convinced Pep Guardiola that what he needed wasn't a tactical evolution, but a striker, a striker who does not get bored with scoring goals.

Erling Haaland at Manchester City 

The start to life was seamless. Haaland completely made Pep Guardiola forget the false striker noting as he made him realize the job of a striker is to put the ball in the back of the net.

He kept on doing that, so much so that he won the club everything at the end of his first season. With the Premier League, Champions League, and Emirates FA Cup titles, they became only the second English team to win the treble after Man United in 1999.

Haaland just couldn't stop scoring. He surpassed the previous record for most goals in a 38-game Premier League season jointly owned by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole, 34 each, scoring 36 in 35 appearances.

The Norwegian was also the top scorer in the Champions League with 12 goals, at least four more than any other player, and finished the season with 52 goals and nine assists in 53 club games across all competitions.

The following season had its moments of drama, with Pep Guardiola pressured to play Julian Alvarez instead due to Haaland's fitness issues and dropped form.

Pundits highlighted that it could be a Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus deja vu, with the former Dortmund man not hiding his frustrations.

In the end, Haaland was able to convince Pep Guardiola that nobody is better at goalscoring than a striker. He scored his way back into the team and ended up scoring crucial goals to help City beat Arsenal in the title race.

Haaland slowed down in his third season as Manchester City struggled as a unit. But amid their plight, he remained Pep Guardiola's go-to man because he had made the Spaniard realize that goal scorers make all the difference.

Erling Haaland was able to finish the season with 22 Premier League goals, only bettered by Mohamed Salah, 29, and Alexander Isak, 23, even though the Norwegian missed seven fewer penalties than the two.

This season, he has been up and running, and before the visit to Craven Cottage where he became the fastest player to reach 100 Premier League goals, Haaland had scored 14 times in the competition, and at the time he reached that tally, it represented almost 67 percent of City's total.

He then went on a two-game drought before finally scoring his 100th at Fulham, his first open play goal in Craven Cottage having scored penalties in two of his previous three visits.

Erling Haaland; A Premier League Great Already?

Two Premier League titles in three full seasons and two top scorer awards, whatever it is that they use in measuring legendary status, Erling Haaland, if not there yet, is surely closing on it.

The striker is just a few goals away from becoming Manchester City's second all-time leading goalscorer and has won everything at the club, becoming a more successful player than many of the players with legendary status in the league.

His goal-scoring prowess has made him shatter several goal records in the competition, and should he fulfil the years on his City contract, which runs until 2033, he could become the greatest player to ever grace the league.

Many who hold a record or two in the Premier League know it is useless to even hope of keeping it with Erling Haaland around. Their best shot at keeping it would be for the striker to move away from the division.

Haaland may be finding it easy to score goals at Manchester City, but a few years before his arrival, not even Pep Guardiola would have imagined the position he is in, because one of the greatest managers of all time thought he was successfully phasing out the traditional No. 9.

Haaland is the man who saved the traditional No. 9 from going extinct just as the No. 10, because had Pep Guardiola been successful in his experiment, more managers would have followed this path.

In the end, the strike showed nobody does scoring goals better than strikers, and who cares what anyone else offers as long as goalscoring is what wins you games.

The man who defeated Pep Guardiola and broke records that previously looked immortal is not just another player. Call him a legend, great, or even a robot, but all these didn't come easy for Erling Haaland, he wanted it so much, and now, he can relish in his own achievement.