There a few better feelings in football than seeing the ball hit the back of the net.
Seeing the ball find its way past the goalkeeper three times in one match is even better, though. And achieving that in the Premier League probably goes one further, too.
Some of the greatest goal-scorers of all time have graced England’s top flight, and with them has come an abundance of hat tricks over the years. A select few have netted four or more hat-tricks during their spells in the Premier League.
With Erling Haaland placing himself among the best marksmen the league has ever seen by hitting that very milestone in no time at all, we look at the players to have taken the fewest games to score four Premier League hat-tricks.
Just making the top ten is Andy Cole, who scored a total of five hat tricks throughout his Premier League career.
His first four came in rapid time, taking just 137 appearances to notch them. After scoring three in Manchester United’s 7-0 win over Blackburn in October 1997, however, it took him almost another two years to notch another.
Sergio Aguero lit up the Premier League throughout his iconic stint with Manchester City. During his decade with the club, the Argentine notched no fewer than a Premier League-high 12 hat-tricks.
The last of those came in January 2020, over eight years after his first in just his fourth league appearance for the Citizens.
It took him until October 2015 to get his fourth hat trick, scoring five as City thrashed Newcastle 6-1.
By the time the Premier League came into being, Matt Le Tissier was already a well-established baller with Southampton.
His First Division scoring form didn’t alter with the rebranding of England’s top flight and within 120 matches had bagged the last of his four Premier League hat-tricks – the last of which came in a 4-3 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the beginning of the 1995/96 campaign.
One of the finest goal-scorers that the Premier League has ever seen, it’s no surprise to find Harry Kane on this list.
The Tottenham legend has fired hot throughout his career with the north London club and didn’t waste time racking up the hat-tricks. He grabbed his first in March 2015 and had registered four just two years later after a treble in a 4-0 victory over Stoke in the 2016/17 campaign.
We are onto the two-figure club now.
Quite astonishingly, Michael Owen took just 99 games to score four hat-tricks in the Premier League. He remains the youngest player to ever score one with his first in 1998 and he had picked up his fourth by September 2000.
The Ballon d’Or winner went on to score a fairly decent eight Premier League hat-tricks throughout his career.
The Premier League’s all-time leading goal-scorer (for now, anyway) rather unsurprisingly makes the cut for this list too.
Although he spent four years in the top flight with Southampton, scoring one hat-trick (on his league debut no less) in 118 appearances, it took Alan Shearer just 92 outings to notch four in the Premier League era as his goal-scoring form took off at Blackburn.
He’d eventually score 11 hat-tricks in England’s top-tier, contributing to his league-high 260 strikes.
Taking even fewer games to reach four Premier League hat-tricks was Robbie Fowler.
No Englishman has taken fewer games to reach the milestone than Fowler. He completed the feat with a hat-trick against Arsenal in December 1995
It was his fourth Premier League hat-trick in just two years after his debut in the competition with Liverpool.
Another iconic Reds figure, Luis Suarez was a serial bagsman throughout his two-and-a-half-year stay on Merseyside.
He scored a whopping six hat-tricks in that time, netting his first two against Norwich, his third against Wigan and then scoring three in a 4-1 win over West Brom just 79 appearances after his Premier League debut.
The epitome of a fox in the box, Ruud van Nistelrooy was a remarkable goal-scorer, netting 95 Premier League goals in just 150 outings for Manchester United. In total, 15 of that total came in hat-tricks.
The Dutchman bagged his first not long after his arrival in 2001 and notched his fourth around a year and a half later, putting Charlton to the sword with a treble in a 4-1 win at the end of the 2002/03 season.
No one even comes near Haaland.
The Norwegian took very little time to acclimatise to Premier League football and has immediately taken goal-scoring to a different level by anyone’s standards.
It took the striker five outings to record his first two hat-tricks before notching a third as City ran out 6-3 winners in the Manchester derby. That was just his eighth league appearance for the club.
After going over three months without a hat trick (how dare he?), the Norwegian finally got his fourth in January 2023 as the Citizens overcame Wolves 3-0 in Haaland’s 19th league appearance.
Credit: 90min.com
