In City’s last eight league derbies, Haaland and Foden have either both scored or neither has

On 2 October 2022, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden each scored a hat-trick as Manchester City beat Manchester United 6–3. That extraordinary match introduced a pattern that has continued through the next seven Premier League meetings: Haaland and Foden have either both scored or neither has.

The 15–2 split is too sharp to ignore

Across the eight completed derbies since Haaland joined City, the split is clear:

The calculations come from FootyCabin’s corrected derby dataset covering the 2022/23 to 2025/26 seasons. The Premier League’s derby preview also records Haaland’s eight goals in seven league appearances against United.

City’s scoring rate was 3.75 goals per match in the four fixtures in which Haaland scored, compared with 0.50 in the four fixtures without a Haaland goal. That is a 7.5-fold difference.

The wording matters, however. One of the four scoreless fixtures was the 0–0 draw at Old Trafford on 6 April 2025, when Haaland did not play. The BBC’s match report confirms both the result and Pep Guardiola’s reference to playing without the Norwegian.

The comparison is therefore between matches with and without a Haaland goal, not four occasions when he played and failed to score.

Old Trafford is the important exception

The pattern is also not simply a story about one striker. Foden scored in each of Haaland’s four scoring matches, and the pair supplied 15 of City’s 17 goals across the eight-match sample.

The 6–3 double hat-trick was the most spectacular example. In City’s 3–0 win in September 2025, Foden scored once and Haaland twice. Manchester City’s official match coverage confirms the scoring sequence.

Haaland’s venue record adds another layer. He has scored six goals in four Etihad derbies, compared with two goals in three appearances at Old Trafford. A fourth Old Trafford fixture, the 0–0 draw in April 2025, is included in the match sample but not in his appearance total.

The data does not show that Haaland alone determines the result. It does show that City’s derby goals have been unusually concentrated around Haaland and Foden. United’s challenge at Old Trafford is therefore not merely to contain the league’s most prominent striker, but to disrupt the scoring relationship that has accompanied all four of City’s wins in this sample.