Erling Haaland scores a hat-trick as City beat West Ham 3-1

London. Another hat-trick for Erling Haaland has given Manchester City the lead over Arsenal at the start of the Premier League season.

Haaland scored his second successive hat-trick in Saturday’s 3-1 win over West Ham to maintain his perfect start. City moved two points clear of title rivals Arsenal, who drew 1-1 with Brighton after Declan Rice was sent off in the second half.

That brings the Norwegian’s tally to seven goals in three games to start the season and he has 70 in 69 league games for City. Although there are 35 more games left in the campaign, Haaland’s prolific start means any small gap will be hard to overcome.

So it was no surprise that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was left frustrated after his side dropped points.

Hours earlier, they had gone up 1-0 and looked in control until Rice received his second yellow card in the 49th minute after appearing to push the ball aside as Joel Veltman attempted to take a free kick down the wing.

Veltman kicked Rice from behind in the process and the home fans clamoured for the Brighton player to be punished, but referee Chris Kavanagh only showed Rice a red card.

“I was stunned, stunned, stunned because of how inconsistent the decisions were,” said Arteta, who argued that other similar offenses by his rivals were not punished. “By law he (Kavanaugh) can make the decision. But by law they need to mark the next decision, which was red (for Veltman) and it was 10 against 10.”

This move turned the game around and Joao Pedro equalised with a rebound in the 58th minute after David Raya saved Yankuba Minteh’s shot.

Kei Havertz opened the scoring for Arsenal in the 38th with a lobbed shot over goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen and had a chance to put his team back in front with another goal in the 74th minute, but the goalkeeper saved his low shot.

Aston Villa held on to beat Leicester 2-1, newly promoted Ipswich picked up their first point from a 1-1 draw with Fulham and Nottingham Forest also drew 1-1 at home to Wolverhampton.