For 80 minutes, if plenty were perplexed by an outbreak of extraordinary entertainment, maybe no one was more confused than Erling Haaland . There had been seven goals, but he got none of them. A giant figure in the No 9 shirt scored a hat-trick, but it wasn’t him. By the end, there were two outcomes Haaland recognised only too well. Manchester City won and he had scored.

But they were the only normal elements of an astonishing afternoon. Enzo Maresca ’s side extended their 100 per cent start, but in unusual fashion. “I prefer to win 1-0 than 5-3,” said the Italian. He did not get his wish. He had predicted Sunderland would be City’s toughest match of the season so far; he was right in that part, at least.

“Sunderland [against] Arsenal last week was another crazy game,” noted Maresca. The Black Cats have put in colossal efforts against the two title favourites , in contrasting fashion, but with nothing to show for either whereas City are the big winners of this weekend at the summit. They and Arsenal both conceded three. The difference is that City scored five.

It took Haaland to put enough distance between themselves and Sunderland, a side who mounted not one comeback but a series. The first time Sunderland trailed, they levelled after three minutes, the second after four. Seven minutes after they went behind for a third time, Brian Brobbey’s deflected shot looped on to the bar. He instead completed the rarity of a hat-trick against City two minutes after they scored their fourth.

Ruben Dias was required to hook the ball off the line to prevent Sunderland from levelling it up at 4-4. Even at 5-3, Dan Ballard hit the post. Sunderland had 17 shots, eight on target and an xG of 4.25. “We probably deserved to score two or three more,” said manager Regis Le Bris.

All of which felt more incongruous given the reality that Sunderland had not scored more than once in a game so far this season, or that City had arrived on a run of four consecutive clean sheets.

But then, at kick-off, Antoine Semenyo had yet to score this season and he got two goals. Brobbey was still awaiting his first goal of the campaign and, within an hour, he had become the first player to get a Premier League hat-trick against City since Jamie Vardy six years ago; before that, no one had since Vardy again in 2016.

The Dutchman made history, and it counted for nothing. Not since Roque Santa Cruz in 2007 had anyone got a Premier League hat-trick in a losing cause. Perhaps it will be scant consolation to Sunderland, too, that they fashioned the game of the season so far. “A defeat but we are proud,” added Le Bris.