Ranking the Premier League seasons with the most hat tricks
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You may have noticed that the 2023-24 Premier League season has been blessed with what feels like an inordinately high number of hat tricks scored.
In April alone we witnessed three top-flight trebles in the space of just 12 days: Phil Foden scored thrice for Manchester City in a 4-1 win over Aston Villa and Chelsea star Cole Palmer weighed in with three of his own against Manchester United before upping the ante with a spectacular four-goal haul in his side's 6-0 drubbing of Everton.
Despite only being in his second season as a Premier League player, City star Erling Haaland has already scored six hat tricks, putting him level with league stalwarts such as Robin van Persie, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andy Cole and Ian Wright.
Here is a look at each Premier League season by the number of hat tricks scored (including four and five goal hauls) throughout each individual campaign (with a minimum total of 12 hat tricks registered).
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1996-97 (12 hat tricks)
There were some big names among the scorers of the dozen hat tricks that peppered the 1996-97 season with the likes of Alan Shearer, Robbie Fowler, Dwight Yorke and Ian Wright all managing to grab three goals in one game.
Fowler was the only player to register four goals in one game (in Liverpool's 5-1 thrashing of Middlesbrough) and Yorke was the only player to score a hat trick and still end up on the losing side (in Aston Villa's 4-3 defeat against Newcastle United).
However, there was one player who managed to score a hat trick on more than one occasion and that honour went to Fabrizio Ravanelli of Middlesbrough, who hit three in a 3-3 draw against Liverpool on the opening day and then did so again in Boro's 6-1 demolition of Derby County at the end of the campaign.
2020-21 (12)
With the majority of games being played behind closed doors due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many of the 2020-21 season's hat tricks were met with more low-key celebrations.
In total, there were 12 hat tricks scored by 12 different players with Mohamed Salah, Son Heung-Min, Jamie Vardy and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all getting in on the act. Alas, despite winning the Golden Boot with 23 goals to his credit, Harry Kane was not able to add his name to the list.
However perhaps the most notable, or at least the most nostalgically pleasing hat trick of the season was scored by another Tottenham Hotspur player as Gareth Bale marked the end of his loan return to the club with a three-goal blitz against Sheffield United in early May.
1998-99 (12)
While the race for the Golden Boot was fairly humdrum, Liverpool's strike force at least bossed the hat trick charts as both Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen ended the campaign as the only Premier League players to have scored more than one hat trick apiece.
Owen was also one of two players to score four times in one game though his haul in a 5-1 trouncing of Nottingham Forest in October was somewhat overshadowed by Manchester United favourite Ole Gunnar Solksjaer's against the same opposition in February. A four-goal flurry in an 8-1 obliteration that saw the striker set the league record for most goals scored by a substitute, taking just 14 dizzying minutes to do so.
1994-95 (13)
The third season of the competition's existence (and the last before the division was reduced from 22 teams to 20) saw Blackburn Rovers striker Alan Shearer score three hat tricks in one season on his way to comfortably cinching the Golden Boot by a nine-goal margin.
Eventually finishing runner-up behind Shearer in the Golden Boot stakes, Robbie Fowler did at least manage to etch his name into the annals by scoring the fastest Premier League hat trick ever recorded, taking just four minutes and 33 seconds to score three times against Arsenal in late August.
The Liverpool legend's record then stood for almost two decades until Sadio Mané finally took the mantle from him in May 2015 with a lightning-quick 2:56 triple for Southampton against Aston Villa.
The 1994-95 season also saw Manchester United's Andy Cole became the first player to score five goals in a single Premier League match when the prolific hotshot waged a one-man assault on Ipswich Town in United's infamous 9-0 evisceration at Old Trafford -- the joint-heaviest scoreline ever amassed in the division.
1999-2000 (13)
Alan Shearer became only the second player after Andy Cole to score five goals in one Premier League game when the England striker rattled home a quintuple for Newcastle in their 8-0 thumping of Sheffield Wednesday in mid-September.
Newcastle were bottom of the league before kick-off but the presence of Sir Bobby Robson, who was taking charge of his first home game as manager, was enough to inspire his side to an emphatic victory at St James' Park.
Manchester United were title winners by a massive 19-point gulf, and Cole was one of four United players to grab hat tricks over the course of the 1999-2000 league season.
Joining him were teammates Paul Scholes, Dwight Yorke and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who scored four goals in a 5-1 win over Everton that included a left-foot goal, a right-foot goal and a header -- the only such "perfect" hat trick scored by any player that term.
2021-22 (13)
The 30th instalment of the Premier League saw 13 hat tricks scored as Manchester City powered to the title by pipping Liverpool into second place by a single point.
By way of consolation, Mohamed Salah eventually won the Golden Boot (finishing level with Son Heung-Min on 23 goals) and the Egyptian's incredible hat trick against Manchester United in a stunning 5-0 dismantling of rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford in October ranks as one of the most memorable moments of the entire campaign.
Cristiano Ronaldo was the only player to score multiple hat tricks on his return to United, scoring thrice in 3-2 victories over Tottenham and Norwich City as his side eventually washed up in sixth place, some 35 points off the summit.
2012-13 (13)
Robin van Persie scored two hat tricks for Manchester United on his way to winning both the Premier League title and the corresponding Golden Boot, finishing narrowly ahead of Luis Suárez in the running after the Uruguayan had also scored two hat tricks for Liverpool among his personal 23-goal haul.
Van Persie's second hat trick of the campaign will also go down as consisting of the vital goals that delivered what was to be United's last league championship.
Indeed, the Netherlands international stole the show against Aston Villa at Old Trafford by scoring a first-half hat trick (including a monstrous long-range volley that was retrospectively awarded the Goal of the Season plaudits by the Premier League) in a pivotal 3-0 win that saw Sir Alex Ferguson's side wrap up the silverware with four games to spare.
2002-03 (13)
The 2002-03 Premier League season belonged to another of United's formidable Dutch strikers as Ruud van Nistelrooy made it his business to torment defences the league over on his way to winning both the title and the Golden Boot.
After accruing 23 league goals (and one hat trick) in his debut season at Old Trafford, Van Nistelrooy went on to increase his output to 25 league goals and three hat tricks the following term as Newcastle, Fulham and Charlton Athletic all felt his full wrath.
Perhaps the Cottagers were the most traumatised of all his victims, with the United striker scoring one of his most famous solo strikes as part of a three-goal virtuoso display in late March.
The league also witnessed an incredibly rare phenomenon a couple of months later in May when Arsenal beat Southampton 6-0 thanks to combined hat tricks from Jermaine Pennant and Robert Pires.
This scenario has only occurred twice since with Ayoze Pérez and Jamie Vardy both scoring hat tricks in Leicester City's infamous 9-0 thrashing of Southampton in 2019. and Erling Haaland and Phil Foden doing likewise in Manchester City's 6-3 derby day dashing of Manchester United in 2022.
2009-10 (14)
Speaking strictly in terms of hat tricks, the 2009-10 season certainly belonged to Jermain Defoe.
Not only did the Tottenham striker score the first treble of the entire campaign (against Hull City just three days in) but he also drummed up a couple of Premier League records with a memorable goal-scoring blitz against Wigan Athletic in November.
Defoe etched his name on the score sheet five times against the Latics as Spurs went on to win 9-1 at White Hart Lane, meaning he matched the record for most goals scored in a single game (five) and also set an out-and-out record for the most goals scored in one half (also five!).
Indeed, Defoe's stupendous five-goal barrage also happens to include the third-fastest Premier League hat trick on record as just seven minutes separate the three quickest of his strikes on that fateful afternoon in North London.
2000-01 (14)
England international Emile Heskey scored his first and only hat trick in the Premier League when the Liverpool target man notched a "perfect" trio in a 4-0 win against Derby County in mid-October.
Elsewhere, two players scored four goals in one match -- Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for Chelsea in a 6-1 mauling of Coventry City and Mark Viduka for Leeds, in a dramatic 4-3 win over Liverpool.
Michael Owen was the only player to score more than one hat trick throughout the 2000-01 season, with the Liverpool ace notching trebles against Aston Villa and Newcastle -- the latter being the 14th and final hat trick of the campaign.
Marcus Stewart also deserves a nod after scoring 19 goals for newly-promoted Ipswich Town and finishing runner-up behind Hasselbaink in the Golden Boot race -- an impressive haul that included one hat trick against Southampton during the latter stages of the season.
1992-93 (14)
The inaugural 22-team Premier League season was peppered with 14 hat tricks, the first of which was scored by the one and only Eric Cantona in Leeds United's 5-0 steamrolling of Tottenham in late August.
As well as being the first hat trick in Premier League history, Cantona's early-season treble against Spurs is also notable for including the 100th goal ever scored in the newly rebranded competition.
2015-16 (14)
In a topsy-turvy season that saw Claudio Ranieri's 5,000/1 outsiders Leicester City emerge as unlikely title winners, Jamie Vardy finished the campaign as the Foxes' highest goal scorer. But it was fellow Foxes star Riyad Mahrez who proffered the champions' only hat trick of the season by racking up three goals against Swansea City in early December.
That was Mahrez's first Premier League hat trick and it took five years and a big-money move to Manchester City before the Algerian scored his second (versus Burnley in November 2020).
Elsewhere, Georginio Wijnaldum scored four goals in Newcastle's 6-2 thumping of Norwich which came roughly two weeks after Sergio Agüero had scored five times for Manchester City in their 6-1 embarrassment of the team at the bottom of the table, which just so happened to be Newcastle.
2007-08 (15)
Three players helped themselves to two hat tricks throughout the campaign with Benjani Mwaruwari of Portsmouth hitting three goals in a 7-4 win over Reading in September and again a 3-1 win over Derby County in January.
Premier League debutant Fernando Torres also managed the feat for Liverpool (versus Middlesbrough in February and West Ham in March) as did Arsenal forward Emmanuel Adebayor.
Indeed, Adebayor became the first player to register a hat trick against the same team twice in one Premier League season when he scored thrice against Derby County in the Gunners' 5-0 home and 6-2 away victories over the hapless Rams.
December's meeting between Wigan and Blackburn also saw new ground broken as Marcus Bent and Roque Santa Cruz became the first two players to score hat tricks for opposing teams in the same match as the Latics ran out 5-3 winners at the DW Stadium.
1995-96 (16)
The 1995-96 season saw Alan Shearer set the record for the most hat tricks scored by one player in a single campaign when the Blackburn Rovers goal machine powered home five trebles on his way to winning the Golden Boot.
An irresistible force, Shearer scored hat tricks against Coventry City, Nottingham Forest, West Ham, Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham to set a new individual single-season record that has never been surpassed. Meanwhile, despite his myriad goals Rovers were only able to finish seventh.
Harry Kane has come closest in the intervening years after scoring four hat tricks for Spurs during the 2016-17 league campaign, while Erling Haaland (2022-23) and Sergio Agüero (2017-18) both racked up three hat tricks for Manchester City.
1997-98 (16)
There were 16 different scorers of the 16 hat tricks that graced the 1997-98 Premier League season with Dion Dublin grabbing the first and Jürgen Klinsmann muscling in with the last, with the likes of Gianluca Vialli, Gianfranco Zola, Andy Cole and Ian Wright in between
Dennis Bergkamp also mustered his one and only Premier League hat trick when he scored three goals for Arsenal in a 3-3 draw against Leicester City in late August. As you might imagine, the Dutchman's display at Filbert Street was a thing of beauty.
Michael Owen became the youngest-ever player to score a Premier League hat trick when he hit three for Liverpool in a 3-3 draw against Sheffield Wednesday at the tender age of 18 years and 62 days.
Owen's maiden hat trick came on Feb. 14 making him one of only three players to have scored Premier League trebles on St. Valentine's Day, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal vs Leeds, 2021) and Matt Le Tissier (Southampton vs Liverpool, 1994) the only other members of that exclusive group.
2023-24 (17)
This season saw 16 hat tricks before the start of May, representing a joint Premier League record, with only the 1993-94 campaign seeing as many trebles having been scored at the same juncture.
The first three hat tricks of the season were all scored on the very same day as Erling Haaland (Manchester City), Son Heung-Min (Tottenham) and Evan Ferguson (Brighton) all hit trebles against Fulham, Burnley and Newcastle respectively on Sept. 2, 2023.
Since then the likes of Ollie Watkins, Eddie Nketiah, Nicolas Jackson and Chris Wood have all followed suit. With a total of 17 hat tricks, the class of 2023-24 are joint-second for the most in a Premier League season.
2010-11 (17)
Manchester United forward Dimitar Berbatov won the Golden Boot in 2010-11 (tied with Carlos Tevez) though it's worth noting that all 20 of the graceful Bulgarian's goals were scored across just 11 league games for the eventual champions.
Berbatov scored in spurts which included three hat tricks -- scored against Liverpool and Birmingham either side of an impressive five-goal glut against Blackburn in November -- which together accounted for over half of his total league goal tally.
In somewhat unlikely scenes, Maxi Rodríguez was the only other player to manage more than one hat trick in the Premier League in 2010-11, with the Liverpool midfielder hitting three goals twice in the space of a couple of weeks (against Birmingham City and Fulham respectively) toward the end of the campaign.
Some big names also pitched in with solitary hat tricks during the season as Didier Drogba, Theo Walcott, Mario Balotelli, Robin van Persie, Louis Saha, Wayne Rooney, Dirk Kuyt and co-Golden Boot winner Tevez all took home one celebratory match ball apiece.
1993-94 (19)
The record for most hat tricks scored during a Premier League season dates back over three decades, right back to the second-ever iteration of the competition when the strikers of the land ran riot -- albeit throughout a 42-game campaign.
Andy Cole and Alan Shearer both broke the 30-goal mark while four other players also accrued more than 20 goals in a season that saw 1,195 goals scored in 462 games -- the joint-second highest total goals ever scored in a Premier League campaign.
Shearer contributed one of the 19 hat tricks while Cole laid on two, with Kevin Campbell of Arsenal, Tony Cottee of Everton and Matt Le Tissier of Southampton also hitting two hat tricks apiece during the season.
However, Efan Ekoku of Norwich City must also be heralded as the only player to hit a four-goal haul of the campaign, doing so in a 5-1 decimation of Everton in September -- the first-ever instance of a four-goal tally being scored in the Premier League.
Norwich then had to wait until August 2019 for their next Premier League hat trick to come along, which was eventually scored by Teemu Pukki in a 3-1 win over Newcastle at Carrow Road.
2011-12 (19)
With 19 hat tricks scored during a 38-game season, the 2011-12 season goes down (at least in a mathematical sense) as the most treble-laden Premier League campaign of all time.
Hat tricks were scored by big hitters such as Edin Džeko, Wayne Rooney (2), Frank Lampard, Dimitar Berbatov, Steven Gerrard, Clint Dempsey, Luis Suárez, Fernando Torres and Arsenal talisman Robin van Persie, who scored two trebles on his way to clinching the Golden Boot.
Perhaps the most memorable hat trick of the season was notched by Rooney amid Manchester United's astonishing shock 8-2 demolition of Arsenal at Old Trafford in August -- the Gunners' heaviest league defeat since 1927.
Of course, the season ended with upstarts Manchester City capturing their first Premier League title in dramatic fashion as Sergio Agüero scored the decisive goal on the final day to snatch the championship away from United and into City's clutches -- thus ushering in a new era of Sky Blue dominance for the entire competition.
The 2011-12 campaign also witnessed Agüero score his first hat trick for City (in a 3-0 win over Wigan in September). The Argentina striker went on to set a new individual record by scoring 12 Premier League hat tricks for the club, thus breaking the previous high watermark of 11 set by Alan Shearer.
Indeed, Agüero's record-breaking 12th treble came in Jan. 2020 when City handed a 6-1 thrashing to Aston Villa -- though Erling Haaland (the only active PL player in the running) is already poised seven hat tricks behind his predecessor in the pecking order despite only arriving in the Premier League in the summer of 2022.
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