At the rate Erling Haaland is scoring, keeping up with Manchester City is going to be a difficult task in the English Premier League.

So, while it's still only three games into the season, it felt significant when title rival Arsenal dropped points on Saturday and then saw City take full advantage thanks to another hat-trick from its Norwegian goal machine.

Haaland netted his second treble in two games, as City beat West Ham 3-1 to maintain its perfect start and move two points ahead of Arsenal, which was held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton after Declan Rice was sent off early in the second half.

"No words for him," City manager Pep Guardiola said of Haaland, who has seven goals in three games to start the season, and 70 in total in the 69 league games he has played for the club.

Haaland nearly scored a fourth in the fifth minute of added time, but Lukasz Fabianski saved his shot from a tight angle before Ederson denied Crysencio Summerville a late consolation.

"I think he played an unbelievable game, not just with the goals, even defensively and offensively, in terms of giving an extra pass," Guardiola said of Haaland.

With eight Premier League hattricks, Haaland has as many as Thierry Henry (258 games), Harry Kane (320) and Michael Owen (326) managed in their careers.

This was his first away from Etihad Stadium, though, and showed his wide range of finishing skills.

The opener came when he ran onto a pass from Bernardo Silva and beat goalkeeper Alphonse Areola with a low shot. After an own goal from Ruben Dias, Haaland made it 2-1 when he received a pass inside the area and hit a thumping strike into the roof of the net in the 30th minute. The hat-trick was complete in the 83rd, when he went clear through on goal and lifted the ball past Fabianski, who 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."

While there's another 35 games left, Haaland's prolific form makes any small gap to City look tough to overcome.

So, perhaps it's no wonder that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was so frustrated after what he felt was a decisive refereeing decision.

In the early kickoff, Arsenal was 1-0 up at the Emirates Stadium and looked in control when Rice was shown a second yellow card in the 49th minute, for supposedly nudging the ball to the side as Joel Veltman tried to take a quick free kick near the sideline deep in Brighton's half.

Veltman kicked Rice from behind in the process and the home crowd was screaming for the Brighton player to get sanctioned, only for referee Chris Kavanagh to show Rice a red card instead.

"I was amazed. Amazed, amazed, amazed, because of how inconsistent decisions can be," Arteta said, arguing that similar offenses went unpunished earlier in the game.

"In the first half, there are two incidents and nothing happens. Then, in a non-critical area, the ball hits Declan, he turns around, he doesn't see the player coming and he touches the ball."

That decision turned the game completely, and Joao Pedro equalized from a rebound in the 58th after David Raya saved a shot from Yankuba Minteh.

Kai Havertz, who put Arsenal ahead in the 38th minute with a lob over goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, had a chance to restore Arsenal's lead when he ran through on goal again in the 74th, but his low shot was saved.

Everton collapse

Last-placed Everton could only lament its own inconsistencies -and inability to defend crosses — as a bad start to its final season at Goodison Park got worse on Saturday, leaving frustrated home fans flooding out of the stadium at the final whistle.

Everton looked set to earn its first points of the season, after Michael Keane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin gave it a 2-0 lead that stood until the 87th minute.

But, as soon as Antoine Semenyo pulled one back for the visitor, nerves seemed to set in among the Everton players, and Lewis Cook took advantage by heading home an equalizer in the second minute of injury time.

With Goodison Park shell-shocked, Bournemouth kept pouring forward and found a winner in similar fashion, as Luis Sinisterra was left unmarked to head home another cross at the far post three minutes later.

"We just threw the game away," Everton manager Sean Dyche said.

"We were in control, complete control."

Bournemouth moved to five points after opening the season with two draws.

Mbeumo shines

Brentford showed again that it can cope just fine without Ivan Toney, beating Southampton 3-1. Toney was on hand to watch from the stands after completing a deadline-day move to Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli on Friday, and watched as Bryan Mbeumo took up his role as goalscorer.

Mbeumo netted the first two goals and Yoane Wissa added the third to make it a frustrating Southampton debut for goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, who joined from Arsenal this week. Southampton did score its first goal of the season, though, as Yukinari Sugawara netted a late consolation in injury time.

Both Everton and Southampton remain at the bottom of the table, both yet to record a point.

Elsewhere, Aston Villa hung on for a 2-1 win at Leicester, promoted Ipswich earned its first point with a 1-1 draw against Fulham and Nottingham Forest drew 1-1 at home with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Agencies