3 Talking points | Premier League: City cream of the crop, Arsenal mount serious title challenge

Arsenal underlined their emergence as genuine Premier League title contenders with an impressive 3-1 win against Tottenham.

But champions Manchester City look the cream of the crop again after crushing Manchester United 6-3, while spluttering Liverpool's expected challenge is yet to materialise.

AFP Sport looks at three things we learned from the Premier League this weekend:

Haaland's hat-trick haul

As Cristiano Ronaldo watched on from the Manchester United bench, Erling Haaland matched the Portuguese's number of Premier League hat-tricks in City's latest rout of their local rivals.

Ronaldo's three hat-tricks in the English top flight took the five-time Ballon d'Or winner 232 games. Haaland has needed just eight.

The Norwegian looks set to destroy the record books if he maintains a blistering start to his City career.

Haaland has scored 17 times in 10 competitive games for the English champions.

"What Erling is doing he has done in Norway, Austria and Germany," said City boss Pep Guardiola. "That is the reality.

"So he came and realised my mates run like animals so he has to do it too. And of course the quality we have alongside him helps him to score goals."

Arsenal make statement of intent

Faced with a test of their mettle after Harry Kane's equaliser in Saturday's north London derby, Arsenal responded with an emphatic statement of intent.

In previous years, when Arsenal were often a spineless group capable of collapsing at the first hint of pressure, the sight of Kane scoring his latest goal against them would have triggered a dispiriting surrender.

Just months earlier, Kane had scored twice as Tottenham beat Mikel Arteta's team 3-0 to spark a meltdown that saw Arsenal pipped to a Champions League place by their hated neighbours.

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