With the way Erling Haaland is scoring, keeping up with Manchester City in the English Premier League is going to be challenging.
Even though the season is just three games old, it felt important when title rival Arsenal dropped points on Saturday, and City took full advantage with another hat trick from Haaland.
The Norwegian striker scored his second hat trick in two games as City defeated West Ham 3-1, maintaining their perfect start and moving two points ahead of Arsenal, which drew 1-1 with Brighton after Declan Rice was sent off early in the second half.
“No words for him,” City manager Pep Guardiola said about Haaland, who has seven goals in three games this season and 70 in total from the 69 league games he has played for the club.
With eight Premier League hat tricks, Haaland has matched the total of Thierry Henry (258 games), Harry Kane (320), and Michael Owen (326) in their careers.
This was his first hat trick away from the Etihad Stadium, showing off his variety of finishing skills.
He scored the first goal after receiving a pass from Bernardo Silva and beating goalkeeper Alphonse Areola with a low shot. After Ruben Dias scored an own goal, Haaland made it 2-1 with a powerful shot into the roof of the net in the 30th minute.
He completed his hat trick in the 83rd minute by going clear on goal and lifting the ball over Lukasz Fabianski, who had replaced Areola at halftime.
“I really liked the second goal, I have to be honest,” Haaland said. “The second one was lovely. … I like to shoot a bit hard sometimes, as well. Not only easy shots. So it’s good to get a little bit of power out of my body.”
With 35 more games left, Haaland’s impressive scoring makes any small gap to City look difficult to close.
It’s probably not surprising that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was very frustrated by what he saw as a crucial refereeing decision.
In the early kickoff, Arsenal was ahead 1-0 at Emirates Stadium and seemed to be in control when Declan Rice received a second yellow card in the 49th minute. The card was given for moving the ball aside as Joel Veltman tried to take a quick free kick near the sideline deep in Brighton’s half.
During this, Veltman kicked Rice from behind, and the home crowd was shouting for the Brighton player to be punished. Instead, referee Chris Kavanagh showed Rice a red card.
“I was amazed. Amazed, amazed, amazed, because of how inconsistent decisions can be,” Arteta said, noting that similar actions had not been punished earlier in the game. “It was a really, really hard one to take.”
This decision changed the game, and Joao Pedro equalized with a rebound in the 58th minute after David Raya saved a shot from Yankuba Minteh.
Kai Havertz had put Arsenal ahead in the 38th minute with a lob over goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen and had another chance to regain the lead in the 74th minute. However, his low shot was saved.
Last-placed Everton struggled with its own inconsistencies and inability to defend crosses, giving up a 2-0 lead in the final minutes to lose 3-2 at home against Bournemouth. Meanwhile, Brentford showed it can manage well without Ivan Toney by defeating Southampton 3-1.
Everton and Southampton are at the bottom of the table without any points, while Arsenal and Brighton saw their perfect starts to the league come to an end.
Liverpool also has six points from two games and will play against Manchester United on Sunday.
