Records are there to be broken but some in the Premier League might just last the test of time. Just under a decade ago, Southampton’s Sadio Mane set the record for the fastest-ever treble in the division and it’s an achievement that will take some topping.
On the ninth anniversary of Mane’s quick-time treble, we’ve remembered the five fastest hat-tricks in Premier League history.
Ian Wright (Arsenal vs Ipswich Town) – 9 minutes, 15 April 1995
Arsenal endured a nightmare Premier League season in 1994/95 with few highlights as the Gunners slumped to a 12th-placed finish. Fortunately for the North Londoners, Ian Wright remained a shining light in a sub-standard season.
Wright scored 18 league goals for Arsenal, in a season that saw manager George Graham sacked. Wright’s rapid hat-trick against Ipswich helped Arsenal end a run of six defeats in seven in April 1995, as the forward helped himself to a second-half treble inside just nine minutes at Highbury.
Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa vs Man City) – 7 minutes and 10 seconds, 17 August 2008
Gabriel Agbonlahor starred with a seven-minute hat-trick as Aston Villa beat Manchester City in an opening day thriller in 2008/09. The Citizens, who were just days from their transformative Abu Dhabi-led takeover, were under the management of Mark Hughes and struggled to cope with a vibrant Villa attack.
John Carew and Elano exchanged goals to leave the score at 1-1 before Agbonlahor fired in his first from Carew’s knockdown to restore Villa’s lead. He met Gareth Barry’s cross to score a second before racing onto the same player’s pass to complete his hat-trick, with a little over seven minutes before his first and third of the game.
Not a bad way to start the season ????
Gabriel Agbonlahor bags a hat-trick as @astonvilla fire four past Man City on the opening day in 2008#PLMoment pic.twitter.com/QmGRku83gv
— Premier League (@premierleague) July 11, 2018
Jermain Defoe (Tottenham vs Wigan Athletic) – 7 minutes, 22 November 2009
Jermain Defoe went goal crazy as Tottenham thrashed Wigan Athletic 9-1 in November 2009.
Incredibly, Spurs led just 1-0 at the break through Peter Crouch’s opener before Defoe took centre stage at White Hart Lane. The forward became just the third player at that time, after Andy Cole and Alan Shearer, to score FIVE times in a Premier League match as Spurs recorded their biggest-ever top-flight win.
1️⃣
2️⃣
3️⃣
4️⃣
5️⃣
6️⃣
7️⃣
8️⃣
9️⃣❗️@SpursOfficial went goal-crazy against Wigan #OnThisDay in 2009 pic.twitter.com/yKdpgBer4C— Premier League (@premierleague) November 22, 2020
There were just seven minutes from Defoe’s first to his hat-trick goal.
Robbie Fowler (Liverpool vs Arsenal) – 4 minutes and 33 seconds, 28 August 1994
Robbie Fowler’s emergence was one of the most exciting of the Premier League era as the Liverpool teenager announced his arrival on the big stage.
Fowler had broken into the Liverpool team the previous season, scoring 18 goals in all competitions. The 1994/95 season proved to be a season of further development for Fowler, however, who started the season with a bang against Arsenal at Anfield.
Still just 19, Fowler scored three times in four minutes and 33 seconds for Liverpool, dismantling a defence that contained Arsenal icons Tony Adams and Martin Keown at centre-back.
Fowler went on to end the campaign with 31 goals in all competitions, earning the first of consecutive PFA Young Player of the Year awards.
Sadio Mane (Southampton vs Aston Villa) – 2 minutes and 56 seconds, 16 May 2015
Fowler’s treble took more than two decades to beat until Sadio Mane shattered his record.
Southampton celebrated their final fixture at St Mary’s for the 2014/15 season in style, as the Saints walloped Aston Villa 6-1 on the South Coast. Mane was the man who made the difference for Ronald Koeman’s charges, as the Senegalese striker helped himself to a hat-trick inside the opening 16 minutes.
Mane side-footed home on 13 minutes to open the scoring at the second attempt, before Shane Long capitalised on a bad backpass from Ron Vlaar, with the loose ball falling to Mane to convert. A fine finish sealed his hat-trick in record time, completed in just two minutes and 56 seconds.
Read – Arsenal’s Invincibles: The five defining games of 2003/04
See more – Shearer, Yeboah and the Premier League’s greatest golazo kings
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