LONDON.- Another hat-trick for Erling Haaland has given the advantage to Manchester City on 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 main title rivals Arsenal, who drew 1-1 with Brighton after Declan Rice was sent off in the second half.
With this, the Norwegian has seven goals in three games to start the season and has 70 in 69 league games with City.
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 one, which was red (for Veltman) and we were 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.
Other results
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.
