London, United Kingdom (AFP) – Erling Haaland fired Manchester City to the top of the Premier League with a hat-trick in the champions’ 3-1 win at West Ham, while Declan Rice was controversially sent off as Arsenal were held to a damaging 1-1 draw by Brighton on Saturday.

Haaland’s second hat-trick in successive matches ensured Pep Guardiola’s team extended their flawless start to the new season.

City have won the opening three matches of their bid for an unprecedented fifth successive English title and Haaland has been their driving force.

The Norway striker netted in the opening weekend win at Chelsea, hit a treble in the rout of Ipswich, and tore West Ham apart with the latest display of his predatory finishing.

Haaland has scored an incredible 70 goals in 69 league games since joining City from Borussia Dortmund.

The 24-year-old put the visitors ahead in the 10th minute from Bernardo Silva’s pass before City defender Ruben Dias turned Jarrod Bowen’s cross into his own net nine minutes later.

Haaland restored City’s advantage in the 30th minute, drilling into the roof of the net from the edge of the area and wrapped up the points in the 83rd minute with a deft chipped finish.

Lavishing praise on Haaland, Guardiola said: “No words for him. All we can do is make him play better and better and give him as many balls as possible to the box. It’s what we have to do. We are there and we added quality.

Both Arsenal and Brighton had maximum points from their opening two games, and the Gunners looked set for another victory when Kai Havertz pounced on a Lewis Dunk error to lob in the opening goal.

However, the game turned just seconds into the second half when Rice controversially received the first red card of his career.

The England midfielder was deemed to have kicked the ball away as Joel Veltman shaped up to take a Brighton free-kick and was shown a second yellow card.

“I was amazed, amazed, amazed!” an outraged Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said. “Amazed because of how inconsistent decisions can be.

“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.”

Brighton quickly made their man advantage count as Joao Pedro swept home the rebound after David Raya denied Yankuba Minteh.

Aston Villa bounced back from their defeat to Arsenal last weekend, defeating Leicester 2-1 to secure their second win in three games.

Amadou Onana stretched to turn in Jacob Ramsey’s cross from a well-worked free-kick to open the scoring at the King Power Stadium.

Jhon Duran’s towering header just two minutes after replacing Ollie Watkins gave Villa the breathing space they needed.

Facundo Buonanotte pulled a goal back, but the Foxes remain winless on their return to the Premier League.

Southampton have found the jump up to the top flight just as hard.

Brentford eased past the Saints 3-1, with Bryan Mbeumo scoring twice.

Everton suffered another gut punch in their final season at Goodison Park as Bournemouth came from 2-0 down after 87 minutes to win 3-2.

Ipswich got their first Premier League point in 22 years in a 1-1 draw against Fulham.

Honours were also even in a 1-1 draw between Nottingham Forest and Wolves.