For all but the very best players, hat-tricks are special precisely because they’re so rare. And then there are those you didn’t think were possible...
Sergio Aguero recently scored his 11th Premier League hat-trick in a 6-0 win over Chelsea, which was also his second treble in the space of a week. Yawn, Sergio.
On the other hand, Gerard Deulofeu had never managed more than four goals in a top-flight campaign before 2018/19, but took his tally for the current season to six with last Friday’s surprise trio against Cardiff.
While Aguero and Alan Shearer lead the way when it comes to multiple hat-tricks, many were delighted to get just one...
Fourteen hat-tricks were scored in the first Premier League season. And in among those netted by Eric Cantona, Teddy Sheringham, Les Ferdinand and Matt Le Tissier was Chris Bart-Williams’s.
More of a creator than a goalscorer, the Sheffield Wednesday midfielder notched his shock treble in a 5-2 defeat of Southampton. Trevor Francis had chosen to rest many of his best players ahead of the upcoming League Cup final against Arsenal, but his high-flying Owls still had enough about them to win this game comfortably.
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Mark Bright and Phil King got the other goals, and both started at Wembley six days later. An 18-year-old Bart-Williams was left out of the squad altogether. Wednesday lost.
By the time he joined Leicester, Marshall had lost his mullet but gained a little weight. Subtlety wasn’t the stocky striker’s strong point – later, at Bolton, he tried to dupe Sam Allardyce by strapping a heart-rate monitor to his dog in a bid to escape home training – but while modern football was heading in a very different direction, he remained a resolutely unfashionable nuisance.
After just two goals in his first 19 league games for Leicester, Marshall scored three in the space of 27 minutes to give them a commanding lead over Derby.
A thumping half-volley was followed by a simple tap-in after a stumble from goalkeeper Russell Hoult. The third, tucking away Steve Claridge’s cross, wasn’t the cleanest of connections – but Marshall couldn’t have cared less.
The Romford Pele enjoyed a trophy-laden career with Arsenal. Despite playing in an attack-minded team that created plenty of chances under Arsene Wenger, goalscoring was never his specialty. His most in a single season, across all competitions, was six.
And yet Parlour still managed two hat-tricks for the club, one against Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup, and another nine months later in the Premier League. Newcastle were on the receiving end of a 5-0 thrashing at Highbury, with the England international merrily charging forward from midfield to help himself at will.
Kevin Lisbie
Charlton vs Liverpool, September 2003
At the age of 40, Lisbie is still playing – and scoring – for Cray Valley Paper Mills of the Southern Counties East Football League. Despite being barely three miles from The Valley, it’s still a world away from his 113 appearances in the top flight for Charlton Athletic.
Lisbie’s finest moment(s) at the club came in a rare start against Liverpool, after he’d come off the bench to score the previous week. He capitalised on defensive mistakes to score twice in the first half and then grabbed a late winner, running all but unopposed from his own half before curling past Jerzy Dudek from 20 yards out.
Steve Watson
Everton vs Leeds, September 2003
Leeds had been forced to contend with the sales of Harry Kewell and Olivier Dacourt in the summer of 2003, having already flogged Rio Ferdinand, Jonathan Woodgate, Lee Bowyer, Robbie Keane and Robbie Fowler the previous campaign.
One of the less well-remembered moments of a disastrous 2003/04 was conceding Steve Watson’s hat-trick in a 4-0 defeat to Everton – on the same day as Lisbie’s heroics against Liverpool, no less. Although Watson was far from prolific as a utility player, he inflicted a miserable afternoon upon the struggling Whites.
All three finishes were impressive, too: first, he played a one-two with Duncan Ferguson and fired high into the net, then chipped home gloriously from distance and finished his bizarre achievement with a deft lob. Wasted further back, we say.
Luke Moore
Aston Villa vs Middlesbrough, February 2006
Having come through the ranks together and helped Aston Villa to victory in the FA Youth Cup, big things were expected of Luke and Stefan Moore. It was younger brother Luke who went on to enjoy the most success at professional level, while Stefan eventually drifted into non-league.
Even though Luke’s career didn’t go entirely to plan, the former West Brom and Swansea striker still has a Premier League hat-trick to his name from a 4-0 win over Middlesbrough. As a 19-year-old he scored with three neat finishes on a tension-filled afternoon at the Riverside, during which one supporter threw his season ticket at manager Steve McClaren.
Aruna Dindane
Portsmouth vs Wigan, October 2009
With the notable exception of reaching an FA Cup final, where they lost 1-0 to Chelsea, Portsmouth's 2009/10 season was shambolic from start to finish.
Amid a dire financial situation during which debts mounted and players went unpaid, the club were docked nine points for entering administration but would have finished bottom regardless.
Pompey won just seven games in the league, with loanee Dindane contributing some of the few bright moments in their dismal season – including this hat-trick against Wigan. The Ivory Coast international would have featured more frequently but for a clause in his contract which meant that a £4 million fee would have to be paid to Lens once he reached a certain number of appearances.
Leon Best
Newcastle vs West Ham, January 2011
It took Best just over a year to get off the mark for Newcastle, but he finally did so in astonishing fashion. Although injuries were partly to blame for that delay, the £1.5 million signing from Coventry had gone 14 competitive games without a goal for the club by the time West Ham visited St James’ Park.
Best was making his first Premier League start for Newcastle and grabbed three goals in a convincing win, then went on to enjoy his most productive run in the team over the next couple of months. It was never to be repeated, however, and his career has drifted in recent years.
Somen Tchoyi
West Brom vs Newcastle, May 2011
When Roy Hodgson arrived at The Hawthorns in February 2011, West Brom had won one of their last nine league games and hovered perilously above the relegation zone. But the wily Englishman turned their form around so well that the Baggies had bounced their way to comfortable mid-table safety come the final day of the season.
Shockingly, West Brom went three goals behind to Newcastle, yet recovered to claim a point thanks to Cameroonian central midfielder Tchoyi. He broke the home’s side offside trap to slot home his first and then thundered in a second from close range, before completing his trio with a stooping header at the far post from Jonas Olsson’s cross.
Five Spanish players have scored a Premier League hat-trick. Four were full internationals playing for clubs competing at the top of the league; the other was Wigan’s Gomez.
The creative midfielder was more adept at laying on goals for others than scoring them himself, and netted just three times in the league during 2012/13 – all in a single afternoon against Reading.
It was Gomez’s first start for two months after being targeted for criticism from supporters, but his three second-half strikes – the last coming in the 92nd minute – delivered a memorable win.
Sean Cole is a freelance journalist. He has written for FourFourTwo, BBC Sport and When Saturday Comes among others. A Birmingham City supporter and staunch Nikola Zigic advocate, he once scored a hat-trick at St. Andrew’s (in a half-time game). He also has far too many football shirts and spends far too much time reading the Wikipedia pages of obscure players.
![Ray Parlour hat trick vs Newcastle | 2000/01 [HQ] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/DMBGAB3i87g/maxresdefault.jpg)
