Erling Haaland is tearing the Premier League to shreds.
While nobody was under any illusion that Manchester City had signed anyone short of a phenomenon, there is always still that doubt in the back of your mind as to whether or not that quality will translate to England's top-flight.
However, we can feel pretty certain now that Haaland won't be following in the footsteps of Andriy Shevchenko and Radamel Falcao because he's flown out of the blocks in sky blue this season.
Haaland tearing up the Premier League
Having been prematurely lambasted for a lacklustre display in the Community Shield, Haaland silenced the doubters by scoring a fabulous brace at West Ham United on his Premier League debut.
The Norwegian poacher then popped up with a goal on the road at Newcastle United, before becoming just the sixth player to ever score back-to-back hat-tricks in the English big time since its 1992 rebranding.
And not satisfied with having hit both Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest for three, Haaland elevated his record to a dizzying 10 goals in just six matches by notching a strike at Villa Park.
All in all, it's one of the most frightening starts that any summer signing has ever made in the Premier League - and boy is that reflected in the statistics too.
Now that we're able to come up for air after a busy weekend of action, we've had the chance to look at Haaland's goal-rich start to life at the Etihad Stadium in the context of the entire division.
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Top 30 Premier League players so far
To do so, we've turned to the average match ratings at WhoScored, which are calculated and aggregated for every Premier League player across the season based on key metrics from each of their performances.
In layman's terms, it's near enough the closest we can come to an objective ranking of players based on their output in a season - and the early standings in the Premier League are fascinating.
In fact, they couldn't possibly paint a clearer picture of just how much of an impact Haaland has made on the nation's blue riband division, so be sure to check out how the top 30 stacks up at the time of writing down below:
30. Phil Foden (Manchester City) - 7.25
Soccer Football - Champions League - Manchester City Training - Etihad Campus, Manchester, Britain - September 5, 2022 Manchester City's Phil Foden during training Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff
29. Bernd Leno (Fulham) - 7.25
28. Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) - 7.25
27. Jordan Pickford (Everton) - 7.26
26. Joachim Andersen (Crystal Palace) - 7.27
25. Nick Pope (Newcastle United) - 7.27
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Newcastle United - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - August 28, 2022 Newcastle United's Nick Pope celebrates their first goal REUTERS/Phil Noble EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
24. Rodri (Manchester City) - 7.28
23. Jack Harrison (Leeds United) - 7.28
22. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) - 7.28
21. Reece James (Chelsea) - 7.29
20. Joao Cancelo (Manchester City) 7.32
Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City v AFC Bournemouth - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - August 13, 2022 Manchester City's Joao Cancelo in action with Bournemouth's Chris Mepham Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
19. Pascal Gross (Brighton & Hove Albion) - 7.32
18. Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) - 7.36
17. Kieran Trippier (Newcastle United) - 7.37
16. Ruben Neves (Wolverhampton Wanderers) - 7.37
15. Martin Odegaard (Arsenal) - 7.38
Soccer Football - Premier League - Arsenal v Aston Villa - Emirates Stadium, London, Britain - August 31, 2022 Arsenal's Martin Odegaard celebrates after the match REUTERS/Tony Obrien EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
14. Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City) - 7.41
13. Joelinton (Newcastle United) - 7.42
12. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Tottenham Hotspur) - 7.44
11. Fabian Schar (Newcastle United) - 7.45
10. Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal) - 7.48
Soccer Football - Premier League - Crystal Palace v Arsenal - Selhurst Park, London, Britain - August 5, 2022 Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli celebrates scoring their first goal with Granit Xhaka Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
9. Luis Diaz (Liverpool) - 7.48
8. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) - 7.53
7. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) - 7.53
6. Allan Saint-Maximin (Newcastle United) - 7.67
5. Gabriel Jesus (Arsenal) - 7.75
Soccer Football - Premier League - Arsenal v Leicester City - Emirates Stadium, London, Britain - August 13, 2022 Arsenal's Gabriel Jesus celebrates scoring their first goal REUTERS/Tony Obrien EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
4. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) - 7.75
3. Ivan Toney (Brentford) - 7.76
2. Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham) - 7.88
- Erling Haaland (Manchester City) - 8.20
Soccer Football - Premier League - West Ham United v Manchester City - London Stadium, London, Britain - August 7, 2022 Manchester City's Erling Braut Haaland celebrates scoring their second goal REUTERS/Tony Obrien EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
Haaland sets the pace
The difference in match rating between 2nd and 10th place is 0.40. The difference between 1st and 2nd place is 0.42. Madness.
If that statistic alone doesn't underline just how far above everyone else Haaland is right now, then we don't know what will because his astonishing goalscoring record has clearly lit up the algorithm like a Christmas tree.
Even the similarly impressive finishing exploits of Mitrovic and Toney simply aren't in the same league, while the in-form platoon of De Bruyne, Jesus, Firmino and Kane are also merely watching Haaland ride off into the distance.
Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City v Crystal Palace - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - August 27, 2022 Manchester City's Erling Braut Haaland celebrates scoring their fourth goal with manager Pep Guardiola REUTERS/Craig Brough EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
In fact, the City hitman is ranked as the sixth-best player in Europe's top five leagues with only the Ligue 1 quartet of Neymar, Armand Laurienté, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, as well as Joshua Kimmich, flying higher in the data.
So, there really can be no denying Haaland's omnipotence either in the statistics or eye test, which is yet another crushing reminder that Premier League defences are in for a brutal few years.