In England (and perhaps in the rest of the football world too), there’s a pastime of judging Erling Haaland based on whether he scores or not. When he does, he's considered the best striker in the world. When he doesn't, people question, "Is he even a good footballer?"

This analysis, completely unfair to a player who has scored nine goals in four Premier League matches and was one goal away from being the first player in eighty years to net three consecutive hat-tricks, resurfaced on Wednesday when the Norwegian had a dreadful game against Inter Milan.

Ninety minutes, zero goals, zero assists, just one shot on target, an Expected Goals (xG) of 0.33, and only fourteen touches of the ball throughout the match. In short, a poor performance. The explanation, according to his coach, Pep Guardiola, is straightforward.

"He had six players around him. Six. Three behind him, three in front. That’s how they kept him out of the game. It’s difficult for any player in those conditions. Acerbi and Bastoni were five meters behind him. Calhanoglu and Zielinski in front. It’s tough," the Spanish coach explained.

On Wednesday, Haaland missed the chance to become the fastest player to reach 100 goals for a club, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo, who achieved the milestone in 105 matches with Real Madrid.

Haaland can still match that record this Sunday against Arsenal, but the stats show, as might be expected, that he finds it harder to score against better teams.

Against top teams, that is, the 'Big Six' in England (Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, and Arsenal) and in Europe (Real Madrid, Inter Milan, and Bayern Munich), Haaland has scored 18 goals in 35 matches, averaging 0.51 goals per game. Additionally, he has scored in 37.14% of these encounters.

Against other opponents, Haaland has played 69 matches and scored 81 goals, with an average of 1.17 goals per game. He has found the net in 63.8% of those matches.

During his time at Manchester City, the teams he has faced the most are Manchester United (7), Arsenal (6), Liverpool (5), West Ham United (5), and Chelsea (5). The teams he has scored the most against are Wolverhampton Wanderers (8), West Ham (7), RB Leipzig (6), United (6), and Luton Town (6). Of the ten teams he has scored the most against, only United is considered a top team.

This seems entirely logical. The "weaker" the team, the easier it is for City and Haaland to score, while the better the team, the more difficult it becomes.

The problem is that Haaland is pigeonholed as a "goal scorer" and his contributions in a match are almost exclusively measured by goals. He is rarely praised for a good performance if he hasn’t scored.

When he arrived at City, there was concern that Haaland might drift away from the box to adapt to the 'Sky Blues’ style and that his goal-scoring instincts might shift to a different role on the field. However, this transformation hasn’t occurred, and Haaland, the Premier League Golden Boot winner for the past two seasons, is still valued solely based on whether the ball goes in or not.

This Sunday, he will face Arsenal, perhaps the team that has contained him best recently. In his last three matches against the Gunners, he has generated only 0.24 xG and has not scored a goal.