LONDON (AP) — 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.
Bottom side Everton could only rue their own inconsistencies – and their inability to defend crosses – as they blew a 2-0 lead in the dying minutes to lose 3-2 at home to Bournemouth, while Brentford again showed they can fight without Ivan Toney by beating Southampton 3-1.
Everton and Southampton are bottom of the table with no points, while Arsenal and Brighton saw their perfect starts to the season come to an end.
Liverpool also have six points from two games before facing Manchester United on Sunday.
EVERTON COLLAPSES
Everton’s poor start to the season worsened at Goodison Park on Saturday, with frustrated fans quickly leaving the stadium after the final whistle.
Everton looked set to pick up their first points of the campaign when Michael Keane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored to take a 2-0 lead, a lead they held until the 87th minute. But as soon as Antoine Semenyo scored, Everton seemed to become nervous and Lewis Cook seized the moment to equalise with a header in the second minute of added time.
Amid the commotion at Goodison Park, Bournemouth continued to push forward until they finally scored the winner after Colombian Luis Sinisterra was left unmarked and headed the ball into the goal three minutes later.
Bournemouth have five points after starting the season with two draws.
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.
