After Eberechi Eze
tore through Tottenham at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, we dive
into the numbers, quirks and milestones behind the Premier League’s
long history of hat-tricks.
Eberechi
Eze enjoyed a special afternoon at the Emirates Stadium on
Sunday, scoring a hat-trick for Arsenal in their north London derby
win over Tottenham Hotspur.
It was just the fourth hat-trick scored in a competitive men’s
north London derby, but most importantly for the purpose of this
article, it was the 400th scored by a player in the Premier
League. With 400 being a nice round number, what better time to
delve into the facts and stats of Premier League hat-tricks?
Players With the Most Premier League
Hat-Tricks
Eze’s treble against Spurs was his first in the Premier League,
with the England midfielder becoming the 209th different player to
score a hat-trick in the competition.
He joins a selection of 136 players to score just one Premier
League hat-trick, all of whom are a long way off
Sergio Agüero’s sensational record of 12. Agüero scored all of
his for Manchester City, the final one in January 2020 against
Aston Villa breaking a long-standing record held by Alan
Shearer.
Shearer scored 11 Premier League hat-tricks, nine for Blackburn
Rovers and two for Newcastle United. The former England striker
still holds the record for most hat-tricks scored in a single
Premier League season, with his five for Blackburn in 1995-96.
Erling Haaland (4 in 2022-23) and Harry Kane (4 in 2016-17) came
close to equalling that feat, with the former arguably the
likeliest to ultimately break Agüero’s overall record now the
latter plays in the Bundesliga for Bayern Munich.
Man City’s Norwegian striker has eight Premier League
hat-tricks, ranking joint fourth in the all-time standings
alongside Kane, Michael Owen and Thierry Henry but one behind
Robbie Fowler (9).
Luis Suárez deserves a mention here, too. The Uruguayan scored
six Premier League hat-tricks at Liverpool; half of them came
against Norwich City (3), which is the most hat-tricks scored by a
player against a single opponent in Premier League history.
Teams to Have the Most Hat-Trick
Scorers
With his hat-trick against Spurs, Eberechi Eze became the 23rd
different player to score a hat-trick in the Premier League for
Arsenal. That’s a joint record in the competition alongside
Chelsea.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering Sergio Agüero tops the
individual rankings for hat-tricks, it is Manchester City (44) who
have benefited from the most hat-tricks in the Premier League, just
ahead of Arsenal (42), Liverpool (42) and Manchester United
(37).
On the flip side, Derby County and Swansea City (266 games) have
played the most Premier League matches without any player scoring a
hat-trick. It’s also worth mentioning that, despite Bolton
Wanderers playing 494 games in the competition, Fredi Bobic is the
only player to score a Premier League hat-trick for them (vs
Ipswich Town in April 2002).
Both Newcastle and Southampton have conceded the most Premier
League hat-tricks to opposition players (22), while Luton Town have
played the most games in the competition without conceding a
hat-trick (38).
Three Goals Just Wasn’t
Enough
There have been 42 occasions of a player scoring more than three
goals in a Premier League game, with just five of those seeing a
player net five times.
Andrew Cole (March 1995), Alan Shearer (September 1999), Jermain
Defoe (November 2009), Dimitar Berbatov (November 2010) and Sergio
Agüero (October 2015) all managed to achieve that feat.
Only seven players have scored 4+ goals in a Premier League game
on more than one occasion: Cole Palmer, Frank Lampard, Michael
Owen, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Robbie Fowler, Yakubu and Agüero.
A special mention must go to both Palmer (2024) and Solskjær
(1999) as the only two of those to do so twice in the same calendar
year.
Hat-Tricks in Vain
Spare a thought for Matt Le Tissier, who twice scored a Premier
League hat-trick for Southampton but still ended up on the losing
team.
On the final day of the 1992-93 season, he scored all three of
Southampton’s goals against Oldham Athletic but never once put his
side into the lead, as they went down 4-3.
Then, on the opening weekend of the 1995-96 season, he did the
same against Nottingham Forest, with Saints losing 4-3 once more.
Again, none of his goals that day put Southampton into a winning
position.
Dion Dublin suffered the same fate later that season when
scoring a hat-trick for Coventry City against Sheffield Wednesday
in December 1995. He put his side into the lead on three separate
occasions but still ended on the losing team in a 4-3 defeat.
The following September, Aston Villa striker Dwight Yorke scored
a sensational hat-trick against Newcastle only to end up on the
losing side in a 4-3 loss at St. James’ Park.
The last player to score a hat-trick and end on the losing team
in a Premier League game was Blackburn Rovers’ Roque Santa Cruz in
December 2007. The Paraguayan striker scored his hat-trick goal to
put Blackburn 3-2 ahead, but Marcus Bent added two more goals to
his first-half strike to complete a hat-trick of his own for Wigan
and secure a 5-3 victory.
Multiple Hat-Tricks in Games
Well, we’ve already given you one of the answers to this… That
aforementioned 5-3 win for Wigan Athletic over Blackburn in
December 2007 saw Marcus Bent and Roque Santa Cruz score
hat-tricks. It remains the only game in Premier League history to
see a player from both teams score three times.
There have been three other occasions of two players scoring a
hat-trick for the same team in a match, though.
In May 2003, Jermaine Pennant and Robert Pirès scored three
goals each in Arsenal’s 6-1 win over Southampton at Highbury, a
feat that was repeated in October 2019 by Leicester City pair Jamie
Vardy and Ayoze Pérez in their record 9-0 away win over the same
opponents at St. Mary’s.
Phil Foden and Erling Haaland both scored hat-tricks for
Manchester City in their derby rout of Manchester United at the
Etihad Stadium in October 2022. Haaland’s hat-trick that day was
his third in succession at the stadium in league competition.
Fewest Days Between Two Hat-Tricks by a
Player
Take a bow, Les Ferdinand. The Queens Park Rangers striker
scored a hat-trick on 10 April 1993 vs Nottingham Forest before
adding another two days later against Everton on 12 April 1993.
That gap of two days is the smallest between a player scoring two
hat-tricks in Premier League history.
Harry Kane twice came close to equalling that record, managing
to score two hat-tricks just three days apart on two occasions.
First, his four goals against Leicester City on 18 May 2017 were
followed by a hat-trick three days later versus Hull City (21 May);
he then scored two hat-tricks either side of Christmas against
Burnley and Southampton on 23 December and Boxing Day 2017.
Erling Haaland is another player with two quickfire hat-tricks
in the Premier League, scoring two just four days apart in August
2022, first against Crystal Palace and then against Nottingham
Forest, both at the Etihad Stadium.
The Fastest Premier League
Hat-Trick
Sadio Mané scored three goals in the space of just two minutes
and 56 seconds for Southampton against Aston Villa on 16 May 2015.
After scoring his first goal on 12:22, he added two further strikes
on 13:46 and 15:18 to set a new Premier League record for the
fastest hat-trick.
That effort broke the previous record set in August 1994 by
Robbie Fowler, when he scored a hat-trick for Liverpool against
Arsenal in the space of four minutes and 33 seconds.
Youngest
and Oldest
Michael Owen is the youngest player to score a Premier League
hat-trick, netting three for Liverpool against Sheffield Wednesday
on 14 February 1998 aged just 18 years and 62 days old. In fact, of
the nine instances that a teenager has scored a hat-trick in the
Premier League, three were scored by Owen before his 19th
birthday.
The other teenagers to score a Premier League hat-trick are
Robbie Fowler (2), Nicolas Anelka, Chris Bart-Williams, Luke Moore
and Evan Ferguson.
The oldest Premier League hat-trick scorer is Teddy Sheringham,
who got a treble for Portsmouth vs Bolton Wanderers in August 2003
aged 37 years and 146 days old. Cristiano Ronaldo is the only other
37-year-old hat-trick scorer in the Premier League, netting two in
the 2021-22 season for Manchester United.
Other Facts Around Premier League
Hat-Tricks
There have only been seven
Premier League hat-tricks scored by substitutes, the last
coming in September 2022 by Son Heung-min for Tottenham vs
Leicester City.
There have been 10
hat-tricks scored on the opening matchday of a Premier League
season. Bruno Fernandes is the last player to do this, scoring
three in Manchester United’s 5-1 win over Leeds United in
2021-22.
At the time of writing, 5,069 players have played in the
Premier League but only one has scored a hat-trick on their debut.
Fabrizio Ravanelli netted all three of Middlesbrough’s goals in
their opening-day 3-3 draw with Liverpool in August 1996 on his
Premier League bow.
We’ve not come close to a player scoring a hat-trick on every
day of the week, but Thierry Henry (Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and
Sunday), Andrew Cole (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday) and
Harry Kane (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) share the
record of scoring a treble on four different days of the
week.
Just two players have scored a hat-trick of headers in a
Premier League match. Duncan Ferguson did so for Everton against
Bolton in December 1997 before West Brom striker Salomón Rondón
replicated the feat against Swansea City in December 2016.
Justin Kluivert is the only player to score a hat-trick of
penalties in a Premier League game, doing so in Bournemouth’s 4-2
away win at Wolves on 30 November 2024.
The only player to score a hat-trick against a single team both
home and away in the same Premier League season is Emmanuel
Adebayor for Arsenal against Derby County in 2007-08.
Outside of English players, more Premier League hat-tricks have
been scored by players from the Netherlands than any other nation.
Twenty have been scored from eight different Dutch players: Robin
van Persie (5), Ruud van Nistelrooy (5), Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
(4), Justin Kluivert (2), Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars, Dirk Kuyt
and Georginio Wijnaldum.
More Premier League hat-tricks have been scored at the Etihad
Stadium (32) than any other ground, with Anfield (29) and Old
Trafford (28) seeing the next most.
Anthony Martial is the only player to score a Premier League
hat-trick in the month of June, netting three goals against
Sheffield United for Manchester United in 2020.
Amad Diallo holds the Premier League record for the latest
first goal in a hat-trick. Against Southampton for Man Utd in
January 2025, his first strike arrived on 81:02, adding further
goals on 89:09 and 93:09 to complete his hat-trick.
Only nine hat-tricks have been scored by a player for a team
starting the day bottom of the Premier League table. The last
player to do so was Georginio Wijnaldum for Newcastle vs Norwich
City in October 2015.
Just three players have scored hat-tricks against opponents who
started the day top of the table: Romelu Lukaku for West Brom
versus Man Utd in May 2013, Dirk Kuyt for Liverpool vs Man Utd in
March 2011 and Robbie Fowler for Liverpool against Aston Villa in
November 1998.
No goalkeeper has conceded more Premier League hat-tricks than
former Southampton, Liverpool and Wolves player Paul Jones (10),
with Tim Krul conceding just one fewer (9).
Luis Suárez is the only player to score a hat-trick of goals
from outside the box in a Premier League game, doing so for
Liverpool against Norwich City in September 2012.
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