🔬 The Debrief as Arsenal blink first and Everton's despair continues | OneFootball

There was a packed schedule of Premier League fixtures on Saturday, as title challengers Arsenal and Manchester City were both in action.

Let’s take a look at what went on.

What happened?

A red card for Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice was the turning point for the Gunners, as they conceded to Brighton shortly after his controversial sending off and couldn’t recover seeing the game ended 1-1. That result meant that new Seagulls boss Fabian Hürzeler is unbeaten with seven points in his opening three Premier League games, and at the age of just 31, too.

The 3pm kick-offs saw Ipswich secure their first point since promotion to the Premier League in the summer, but it was a bad day for Southampton, as their defensive issues were ruthlessly exposed by Brentford in a 3-1 win for the Bees.

Nottingham Forest and Wolves shared the points and Aston Villa continued their impressive form with a 2-1 win away at Leicester.

The biggest story of the afternoon though was Everton’s collapse at home to Bournemouth. The Toffees were 2-0 up and cruising, but allowed the visitors to score on the 87th, 92nd and 96th minute marks as they took a smash and grab three points back to the south coast.

The later kick-off was very much the Erling Haaland show, as Manchester City demolished West Ham by a 3-1 scoreline in London.

Player of the day

It couldn’t be anyone else, could it?

It took Erling Haaland just ten minutes to open his account, making him the first player in Europe’s top five leagues to reach five goals.

By the time he’d hit his second goal, he had only touched the ball seven times.

His hat-trick came on 83 minutes, which was his second in the opening three games of the season, the first player to do so since Paul Jewell hit that same mark for Bradford City back in 1994/95.

Seven goals in the opening three matches of a Premier League campaign breaks the record set by Manchester City’s Edin Džeko, who scored six in the first three games of the 2011-12 season.

And if those stats weren’t quite enough for you, Haaland now has 70 goals in his 69 Premier League matches.

More goals than games. He really is electric.

Stat of the day

While Haaland stood out as a shining light, Everton really were the opposite.

Their complete and utter collapse was the worst in Premier League history, and it’s difficult to see how they can resurrect their season, even at this early stage.

Change of coach incoming?

What this means

It’s obviously far too early to be talking about the title race, but the fact is that Arsenal have blinked first, and only time will tell whether that proves to be significant.

Manchester City have set the bar so high in recent years that any challenger must be close to perfect to beat them to the trophy. And the Gunners have lost their 100% record after just three games.

Meanwhile, Everton are in a truly desperate situation. With problems on and off the pitch, there’s a clear lack of confidence that’s undermining the team’s performances, and it will need to be fixed sooner rather than later.

What they said

To say that Mikel Arteta was upset with the decision that saw Declan Rice sent off is an understatement. “In a non-critical area, the ball hits Declan, he turns around, he doesn’t see the player coming and he touches the ball,” the boss fumed. “By law, he can make that call, but then by law he needs to make the next call, which is red card so we play ten versus ten. This is what amazed me. At this level it’s amazing.”

Sean Dyche was understandably in despair after his side’s collapse at Goodison Park. “For 87 minutes its a very, very good performance, I was very pleased,” the Englishman told reporters afterwards. “But after the first goal I could smell it in the air, I thought this ain’t right. I was trying to correct it, screaming [at] them to correct their shape and just do the absolute ugly side of the game.”

One happier man was Aston Villa’s Unai Emery, who gave credit to the club’s fans for being the 12th man. “I’m very happy. We were speaking before the match in the dressing room about how we are always feeling our supporters helping when we are playing away,” he said. “We are playing thinking of them and trying to feel comfortable. Playing away, their supporters are pushing a lot, but we can feel our supporters here with us.”

What comes next?

There’s plenty to come in the Premier League, with a mouthwatering Sunday of action.

Manchester United’s game with Liverpool is the pick of the bunch, closely followed by Newcastle’s clash with Tottenham and Chelsea’s home game against Crystal Palace.