Erling Haaland continues to motor along at better than a goal a game for Manchester City and has passed Cristiano Ronaldo on the Premier League all-time scoring list.
His latest victim was West Ham on Saturday.
The Norway striker scored in each half to move to 19 goals in 17 matches in this campaign and also set up Tijjani Reijnders’ strike in a 3-0 win at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
The victory lifted City into first place, a point ahead of Arsenal before the deposed leader’s match at Everton later Saturday.
Liverpool won at nine-man Tottenham 2-1 but lost record signing Alexander Isak to a left ankle injury sustained when scoring the first goal.
Chelsea came from two goals down to draw at Newcastle 2-2.
Haaland surpasses Ronaldo
Haaland has 38 goals in a combined 28 games for club and country in what is shaping up to be the most prolific season of his career. Injury permitting, the season will end in him going to his first World Cup with Norway.
His double gave him 104 in the Premier League, one more than Ronaldo — who had two spells at Manchester United — having played 122 games fewer.
Haaland scored at the second attempt from Phil Foden’s cross to give City a fifth-minute lead and took advantage of a defensive mix-up by West Ham to make it 3-0 in the 69th.
In between, Haaland slipped a short pass to Reijnders, who took a touch and rifled a shot into the roof of the net in the 38th.
Isak injured
Isak just can’t catch a break at Liverpool.
The Sweden striker has struggled in his first few months as British soccer’s record signing, having joined Liverpool after training mostly alone in the offseason. He then recently had time out with a groin injury.
On as a sub against Tottenham, Isak scored within 11 minutes but in the act of converting his finish his left ankle was hurt by a challenge from Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven and he was helped off the field.
Tottenham was already down to 10 men at that point after Xavi Simons’ red card for a studs-up foul on Virgil van Dijk, and Hugo Ekitike doubled Liverpool’s lead with a header.
Richarlison reduced the deficit for Spurs in the 83rd and there was time for Cristian Romero to become the second home player to be sent off after kicking out at Ibrahima Konate.
Liverpool climbed to fifth place.
Woltemade’s week
What a difference a week made for Nick Woltemade.
Last weekend, he scored an own-goal to consign Newcastle to a derby loss at fierce rival Sunderland. Six days later, he netted twice in the opening 20 minutes to give his team a fast start against Chelsea.
Chelsea recovered, though, to draw 2-2 with Joao Pedro’s equalizer coming off a rare assist from a goalkeeper.
Robert Sanchez smashed a long clearance up to Pedro, who headed the ball forward and ended up collecting it himself after Fabian Schar slipped. Pedro slotted a finish underneath Newcastle goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale to earn Chelsea a point in the 66th.
“I wanted to give a good performance today and I think I did,” Woltemade said. “I just want to say thank you to the fans for still being good with me.”
Reece James launched Chelsea’s fightback by curling a free kick in off the post after halftime.
Chelsea stayed in fourth place and has won only one of its last five games in the league. Newcastle, one of England’s representatives in the Champions League this season, is languishing in midtable after one win in its last four games — and that was against next-to-last Burnley.
Still winless
Last-placed Wolverhampton remained without a win and on just two points after losing at home to Brentford 2-0.
The latest defeat meant Wolves tied Sheffield United’s 2020-21 record of 17 games without a win from the start of a Premier League season and has lost a club record-extending 10 league matches in a row.
Keane Lewis-Potter scored both of Brentford’s goals in the second half.
Semenyo’s worth
Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo is reportedly a target of some of the Premier League’s biggest teams, including Man City and Manchester United.
He underlined his worth by curling home his team’s goal in a 1-1 draw with Burnley, which ended its seven-match losing run on its tough return to the top flight. Armando Broja grabbed Burnley’s equalizer in the 90th.
Sunderland is doing much better since promotion. A 0-0 draw at Brighton leaves the north-east team in sixth place.
Remaining games
There are two more games to be played on Saturday: Everton vs. Arsenal and Leeds vs. Crystal Palace.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Steve Douglas, The Associated Press
