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With nine goals in his opening seven fixtures, Pep Guardiola's attacker Erling Haaland has kicked off the season with incredible momentum.

Even though this doesn't represent his strongest opening to a season - he found the net 11 times in his first seven games in two seasons ago and 10 last season - it nevertheless places him three strikes clear in the initial race for this term's Premier League Golden Boot.

What makes this none of his nine goals have been penalties renders it particularly impressive.

What Makes Haaland Special

Naturally, physical problems might significantly impact in the destination of the Golden Boot, but there are two key factors why Haaland is so heavily favored for the prize so soon in the campaign.

First, the quantity of strikes he has thus far netted - and, of similar importance, the total and standard of scoring opportunities he's creating.

And second, the sluggish beginning his regular challengers for the honor have made.

Expected Goals Analysis

A attacker's expected goals metric (xG) indicates how many goals a English league attacker has historically scored from the total and standard of scoring situations he's encountered.

This isn't a number randomly picked by data analysts, but by historical Premier League data.

Upon reviewing at footballers' expected goals in the Premier League so far this campaign from regular situations, the Norway forward is obtaining considerably more excellent scoring situations to find the net than anyone else.

In fact, even if Haaland wasn't superior at converting opportunities than every other footballer in the division, he would nonetheless have netted more than twice as many goals as the remainder of the league.

Chance Creation Breakdown

This is shown by analyzing the number and quality of scoring situations that players have had in the top flight so far.

Haaland has registered 29 attempts so far this season, twelve additional compared to every other footballer.

Interestingly, this is not particularly unusual for him - he had actually taken more open-play attempts at this juncture in the last two seasons (30 in last season and 34 in the previous term).

What's particularly unprecedented even for him is the caliber of opportunities he has had this term. His efforts have had an chance quality metric of 0.27 on average.

This number represents is that footballers have traditionally scored the efforts he's registered at a 27 percent conversion rate.

Regarding attackers registering at ten or more efforts, only Stamford Bridge player Enzo Fernandez has had more straightforward opportunities to convert per attempt - because of a couple of tap-ins against West Ham and Brighton.

The Norwegian's expected goals of an average of 0.27 is considerably superior than the 0.17 xG per shot he had at the beginning of the previous campaign.

In short, the opportunities he has had in this campaign have been considerably more favorable to convert from in a restructured Manchester City side than those at the beginning of last season.

Past Performance Analysis

Beginning a campaign so impressively is, as mentioned above, typical for Haaland. Following seven matches last season he had scored 10 goals - four more than every other footballer and six additional compared to Mohamed Salah.

Yet it was the Anfield star who claimed the top scorer award with 29 goals, seven additional compared to the Etihad attacker.

In the new campaign, while Haaland has started in blistering form, Salah has scored half the number goals and had half the scoring situations (xG) than at this juncture last term.

In fact this has been the quietest start to a Premier League season the Pharaohs star has made.

Competitors' Modest Opening

It isn't only Salah who has begun modestly either. Upon reviewing at the top 11 scorers in the Premier League last season, Haaland has scored as many goals as the remaining ten footballers combined so far.

Whether because of fitness issues - Yoane Wissa, Cole Palmer and Jorgen Strand Larsen - protracted transfer stories in a specific forward's circumstances or just due to the fact that their sides have underperformed (multiple established scorers), Haaland's likely rivals in the race for the Golden Boot have not fired so far.

European Golden Shoe Race

While Haaland looks the obvious frontrunner for the English top scorer award, what about the European Golden Shoe that is awarded to the attacker netting the highest number in Europe's premier competitions?

That competition is considerably more open at this initial phase because two elite attackers have similarly opened in great form, with eleven and nine strikes correspondingly.

The circumstance Haaland has scored so many times and has the top chance quality metric of the three despite not attempting any spot-kicks positions him as the likely winner.

However, because Kane and Mbappe are two of the best converters in European football in terms of exceeding their expected goals, the competition remains open.