England roundup: Haaland’s hat trick powers City; Arsenal tops United
Erling Haaland can break all kinds of Premier League scoring data this season and it nonetheless won’t safe Manchester City one other title.
That’s as a result of there may be simply no stopping Arsenal, which overcame one other massive impediment in its bid for a primary league title since 2004.
Just a few hours after Haaland scored his fourth hat trick of the season in City’s 3-0 win over Wolverhampton, Arsenal responded by beating Manchester United 3-2 due to a Ninetieth-minute winner by Eddie Nketiah.
Arsenal stayed 5 factors away from second-place City and has a recreation in hand. The prime two should nonetheless meet one another twice within the league so there may be scope for a turnaround.
It will want Arsenal to decelerate and Haaland to maintain on scoring. Currently, there’s no signal of both of these issues taking place.
Arsenal was relentless in opposition to United after going behind to Marcus Rashford’s ninth purpose for the reason that World Cup. Goals by Nketiah and Bukayo Saka put the hosts forward, Lisandro Martinez equalized after a weak punch clear by Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, just for Nketiah to flick residence from shut vary for a purpose that was reviewed for offside.
Remarkably, Arsenal has nonetheless solely dropped seven factors from a doable 57 and has simply come by way of a tough-looking run of video games in opposition to Brighton, Newcastle, Tottenham and United by taking 10 factors from 12.
Still, with Haaland there may be hope for City, the defending champion.
The Norway striker moved to 25 objectives for his debut league marketing campaign in England by scoring all of City’s objectives in opposition to Wolves. That can be sufficient to win the Golden Boot within the Premier League in any of the earlier 4 seasons.
The document purpose tally for a 38-game Premier League season is held by Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, with 32 in 2017-18. The most in a 42-game Premier League marketing campaign was 34, by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole.
If Haaland stays match, he’s on track to simply surpass these data.
Arsenal and City meet for the primary time within the league on Feb. 15. Before that, they play one another at City’s Etihad Stadium within the FA Cup on Friday.
United and third-place Newcastle are each six factors behind City now.
Brentford 0, Leeds 0
LEEDS, England (AP) — Leeds’ winless run within the Premier League moved to 6 matches after being held to a 0-0 draw by Brentford at Elland Road on Sunday.
The level lifted Leeds above West Ham into fifteenth place however Jesse Marsch’s staff sits only one level above the relegation zone, whereas Brentford prolonged its club-record unbeaten league run to eight matches.
It was a irritating afternoon for Leeds, which was in dire want of all three factors after successful solely two of its earlier 15 within the prime flight.
Brentford’s David Raya was the busier goalkeeper, producing the sport’s decisive save when turning apart Willy Gnonto’s second-half effort. However, Leeds lacked the standard across the penalty space to noticeably take a look at the guests.
Leeds’ club-record signing, Georginio Rutter, remained on the bench and that solely added to the house followers’ irritation.
Brentford, which headed into this weekend’s spherical of fixtures above Liverpool and Chelsea within the standings, climbed again into eighth place.
