Premier League round-up as Man United humbled by Liverpool, Rice sees red and Everton collapse

After the chaos of deadline day, there was an equally eventful set of fixtures this weekend that saw old rivals go head to head, a thrilling comeback on Merseyside, and fury at refereeing at the Emirates. Here are five of the big talking points from week three of the Premier League.

Slot’s Liverpool dismantle Man United to continue perfect start

New Liverpool manager Arne Slot must think the Premier League isn’t all it’s cracked up to be after a perfect nine points and no goals conceded from his first three fixtures. This weekend’s victory will be the sweetest so far: a 3-0 humiliation of ultra-rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford set out the challenges Erik ten Hag faces in excruciating detail.

The difference between the two sides’ midfields was plain as day, with an excellent performance from Ryan Gravenberch standing in sharp contrast to a fumbling one from United’s Casemiro, whose two deadly errors handed Liverpool two goals and saw him hooked off at halftime. A first-half brace from Luis Díaz was followed up with Mo Salah’s tenth Old Trafford goal shortly after the restart, and United were fortunate not to see a heavier defeat.

While the Liverpool away end was jubilant, the mood among the home support was sour with Ten Hag’s decision to bring off Alejandro Garnacho rather than Marcus Rashford booed in the second half. United fans will hope that new signing Manuel Ugarte, who wasn’t eligible to play in the fixture but was unveiled to the Theatre of Dreams ahead of kickoff, will help shore up their fragile midfield - but defensive organisation and ruthlessness in front of goal also need to be looked at for Ten Hag’s insistence that United are still trophy contenders to come true.

Arsenal gunning for referee after controversial sending off at the Emirates

Mikel Arteta’s side were denied a third win by Brighton, who stay just ahead of them in the Premier League table, in a hotly contested clash in North London. Kai Havertz fired the home team into the lead just before halftime after an error from Brighton’s Lewis Dunk, but the game was turned on its head minutes after the break when Declan Rice was dismissed.

The midfielder had been booked in the first half and received a second yellow for delaying the restart, nudging the ball away after locking horns with Joël Veltman and giving away a freekick. However the Emirates was outraged by what they saw as a harsh dismissal - in the same incident, Veltman kicked Rice when he apparently swung to take the freekick (though the ball was in motion at the time). It didn’t help that earlier in the game, Brighton’s João Pedro didn’t receive a card for booting the ball down the pitch after it ran out of play.

Brighton made use of their man advantage within minutes, equalising through Pedro after a brilliant ball from Dunk and an assist from Yankuba Minteh. Both sides missed opportunities throughout the remainder of the match and it eventually ended in a 1-1 stalemate. Seagulls

boss Fabian Hürzeler was insistent that the incident was a ‘clear red card’ and not comparable to Pedro’s earlier actions, while Arteta said he was ‘amazed’ by the incident.

It means Rice will miss the North London derby after the international break, as he faces a one-match suspension. The Gunners are fourth in the table, behind Brighton in third only on goals scored.

Haaland’s frightening form continues - how many records will he break?

The only Premier League team to score more goals than Erling Haaland so far this season is Manchester City - and yes, you read that correctly. Haaland’s seven goals is a tally matched only by the whole of Liverpool’s team, and bettered only by City themselves (with Kevin de Bruyne and Mateo Kovačić adding one each to the club’s tally). This weekend against West Ham, he scored his second hattrick in as many weeks - it was his first away from the Etihad in the league and has moved him up to joint-fourth in the all-time Premier League hattrick table. He’s now scored eight trebles in 69 league appearances - Wayne Rooney took 491 games to record seven.

Another hattrick will see him go joint-third with Robbie Fowler, overtaking Michael Owen, Harry Kane, and Thierry Henry, and he only needs five more to overtake the record holder Sergio Aguero’s dozen. That doesn’t seem too tall an order for this campaign - and would of course see him take Alan Shearer’s mantle for most hattricks in a single season. Haaland could also break his own record for most goals in a season; he’s already almost a fifth of the way to his tally of 36 in 2022/23, with only 3 of 38 games played.

Of course, the season is still young and surely even Haaland can’t continue this goalscoring form all season… could he? In his debut season when he broke that goalscoring record, he scored 14 goals in his first eight Premier League matches and nine in his first five. Stay tuned to see if he exceeds that red-hot start to the season throughout the autumn.

Everton now one of only two teams with no points after conceding three in dying minutes

In the weekend’s preview, one stat to watch was that five teams had failed to record a single point from their first two matches. Nobody wants to be last off the mark, but Everton are in real danger of doing so - only they and newly promoted Southampton are still on zero points. It looked for all the world as though Sean Dyche’s side would finally have something to smile about as they were cruising home on a 2-0 lead in the 87th minute at Goodison Park against Bournemouth.

Cut to ten minutes later and goals from Antoine Semenyo, Lewis Cook, and Luis Sinisterra left the Toffees empty-handed and on the wrong end of a 2-3 defeat. That onslaught came in spite of some excellent saves by Jordan Pickford; the defence was in disarray and it was almost too easy for Andoni Iraola’s team to claw back a win. The victory was the latest ever winning comeback from being two goals behind in the Premier League, and Iraola praised his team’s effort; it was reminiscent of their 4-3 comeback over Luton in last season’s classic encounter.

While Bournemouth can celebrate being eighth in the table and one of only seven unbeaten teams so far, Everton are now dead last on a goal difference of -8. Their collapse was incredible: having looked the better team for the majority of the match, as Iraola admitted, they then went on to concede six of Bournemouth’s seven shots on target in the final 12 minutes of the match.

Fans were able to take a tiny bit of solace in a fantastic performance by their summer newcomer Iliman Ndiaye - but things will only get more difficult after the international break when they face Aston Villa.

Gaps emerging between newly promoted teams in positive signs for relegation battle

Last year’s relegation battle was something of an anticlimax, with all three of the Premier League’s newcomers - Sheffield United, Luton Town, and Burnley - immediately bouncing back down to the Championship, and there were fears that this season could see a repeat of that frustrating cycle. However, only one of this year’s three promoted sides is currently in the relegation zone - Russell Martin’s Southampton join Everton in not recording a draw or win so far, and his side’s tactics in playing out from the back were once again criticised as naive in their 3-1 loss to Brentford on Aaron Ramsdale’s debut.

Despite almost matching their opponents for touches in the opposition box, shots, shots on target, and dominating possession, they were roundly beaten and punished for not making the most of their time on the ball. A tactical rethink will almost certainly be needed if they’re to survive. However, things look possibly more promising from their fellow promotees. Ipswich and Leicester City are only just outside the danger zone on goal difference - but the former managed an even contest and 1-1 draw with Fulham this weekend and it’s worth bearing in mind that their opening two losses were to the league’s two top teams.

Leicester, meanwhile, paid the price for some leaky defending in a 2-1 home defeat to Aston Villa. Their opening games haven’t been entirely convincing: 2-1 losses to Fulham and Villa and a draw with Spurs are not strong results, but they’re also not scorelines indicative of a chasm in quality. All three teams will have significant work to do if they’re to be in with a chance of staying up, but the relegation zone so far features Wolves, Southampton, and Everton. If any of last season’s Championship contenders can hit a run of form, it could make for a very interesting run-in to avoid the drop.