Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey became only the fifth different player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick and still finish on the losing side when he struck three times in the Black Cats' 5-3 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, ending a 19-year wait for the unwanted feat.
Brobbey's treble, which came in the 12th, 33rd and 59th minutes, twice brought Sunderland level before Erling Haaland settled the contest with a late goal for the league leaders. It was the sixth instance of a player scoring a hat-trick in a losing cause in the Premier League, and the first since Blackburn Rovers' Roque Santa Cruz in December 2007. The Dutch striker, who became the first Sunderland player to score a Premier League hat-trick since Jermain Defoe in January 2016, admitted afterwards that the result made his achievement difficult to enjoy. "It's hard being on the losing side when you're scoring three goals," Brobbey told Sky Sports. "It's really hard to lose".
The rarity of the feat is underscored by the fact that over 200 players have scored a Premier League hat-trick, yet only five have ended up on the losing team. Matt Le Tissier, the Southampton legend, accounts for two of the six instances, making him the only player to have suffered the fate twice. The first came in the Premier League's inaugural season, on May 8, 1993, when Le Tissier scored a volley, a free-kick and a header at Oldham Athletic, only for Southampton to lose 4-3. Oldham's victory kept them up and relegated Crystal Palace instead, while the Saints were already safe and played as if already on holiday. Two years later, on August 19, 1995, Le Tissier repeated the feat at The Dell, scoring two penalties and another free-kick in a 4-3 home defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Dion Dublin became the third player to achieve the unwanted feat on December 4, 1995, scoring three centre-forward goals — two headers and a tap-in — for Coventry City at Sheffield Wednesday. The Sky Blues had won just once all season, and Mark Bright's winner for Wednesday meant Dublin's treble counted for nothing. Less than a year later, on September 30, 1996, Dwight Yorke scored a brilliant hat-trick for Aston Villa at Newcastle United, but the Magpies emerged 4-3 winners in a seven-goal thriller. Yorke was only denied a fourth — and a late equaliser — by the linesman's flag.
The long gap that followed was broken on December 15, 2007, when Roque Santa Cruz scored three times for Blackburn Rovers at Wigan Athletic. In a match that featured two hat-tricks, Wigan's Marcus Bent matched Santa Cruz's contribution and secured the points for the Latics in an eight-goal thriller. Santa Cruz had pulled Blackburn level from a three-goal deficit, completing his hat-trick just past the hour mark, moments after team-mate Brett Emerton was sent off. The Paraguayan scored 23 times that season, 19 of them in the Premier League, but that treble at the JJB Stadium remained the last of its kind for nearly two decades.
Brobbey's hat-trick also placed him in other exclusive categories. He became only the fourth player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick against the team starting the day top of the table, following Robbie Fowler for Liverpool against Aston Villa in November 1998, Dirk Kuyt for Liverpool against Manchester United in March 2011, and Romelu Lukaku for West Brom against United in May 2013. He was also the first Sunderland player to score a Premier League hat-trick since Jermain Defoe and only the fifth player to score a top-flight treble for the club, joining Kevin Phillips, Darren Bent, Adam Johnson and Defoe. The 24-year-old became the ninth Dutchman to score a Premier League hat-trick, joining a list that includes Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
The defeat left Sunderland with four points from their opening five matches, but Brobbey heads into the international break having finally opened his league account in spectacular fashion. "I think we played a really good game. We tried, it's hard when you lose. I'm really happy, obviously, with three goals," he said. "We just need to keep building. As a group, we have to keep going".
For Le Tissier, the dubious honour remains unmatched. The Southampton forward, who scored 209 goals for the club and is widely regarded as one of the most gifted players of the Premier League era, is the only man to have scored a hat-trick in two separate Premier League defeats. His first, against Oldham in 1993, came in the competition's first season; his second, against Nottingham Forest in 1995, came on the opening day of the 1995-96 campaign. As he glanced upwards after that August afternoon defeat, a plane streaked across the sky. The seed of his later conspiracy theories had been planted.
The rarity of the feat serves as a reminder of how difficult it is to score three goals in a Premier League match, and how much harder it is to do so and still end up on the losing side. Over more than three decades of Premier League football, only five players have experienced that particular blend of individual brilliance and collective failure. Brobbey's name now sits alongside Le Tissier, Dublin, Yorke and Santa Cruz — a club no forward wants to join, but one that guarantees a place in the record books nonetheless.
📩 Stone Reporters News | 🌍 stonereportersnews.com
✉️ info@stonereportersnews.com | 📘 Facebook: Stone Reporters News | 🐦 X (Twitter): @StoneReportNew | 📸 Instagram: @stonereportersnews
Add comment
Comments