Mick Quinn became the first player to score a hat-trick on the opening weekend of a Premier League season on 14 August 1993. Things were different back then. His goals came in the unlikely circumstances of Coventry City beating Arsenal 3-0 at Highbury. Quinn scored a penalty past David Seaman in the first half before adding a couple more goals around the hour mark. The big striker said he was the “fastest player over a yard” in the league and he had a knack of starting quickly. He scored in his first six Premier League games in 1992, a feat that has still not been matched.
Matthew Le Tissier scored the only opening weekend hat-trick in a losing cause as Southampton were beaten 4-3 by Nottingham Forest in August 1995. Le Tissier scored two penalties (both of which he had won) with his customary elan before nonchalantly curling a free-kick into the top corner – although it was all in vain as goals from Colin Cooper, Ian Woan and two from Bryan Roy helped Nottingham Forest win at The Dell. Le Tissier a habit of scoring hat-tricks for a losing side. He had already done so against Oldham in another 4-3 loss on the last day of the 1992-93 season. Dion Dublin, Dwight Yorke and Roque Santa Cruz have also scored hat-tricks in defeat, but Le Tissier remains the only player to have done so twice in the Premier League.
Having won a game despite conceding at hat-trick on the first day of the season in 1995, Nottingham Forest won a game thanks to a hat-trick on the first day of the season in 1996. Kevin Campbell hit all three goals as Forest won away at Coventry. He lobbed Steve Ogrizovic for his first goal and celebrated his second with a slightly bizarre cricket swing that the commentator described as “more suited to Trent Bridge than Highfield Road”. He saved the best for last though, deftly bringing the ball under control outside the penalty area and taking a couple of touches before slipping past a couple of defenders and rifling a shot low into the far corner. In just 30 minutes, he had matched his entire tally for the previous season, which he achieved in just over 20 matches.
On the same day that Campbell was dazzling the good folk of Coventry, an Italian was wowing Teeside. Fabrizio Ravanelli had been enticed to Middlesbrough, having just won the Champions League with Juventus. This was quite a coup for chairman Steve Gibson and manager Bryan Robson, and the White Feather immediately repaid their faith in his debut at the Riverside against Liverpool. He starting with an emphatic penalty after Juninho had been brought down, then slotted in from close range for his second, a goal he toasted with his trademark shirt-over-the-head celebration. “He may earn himself a rebuke from the FA as you are not actually supposed too bare your chest this season,” noted the commentator. Ravanelli did not seem too bothered. His third was a slightly scuffed effort that rolled through the legs of Phil Babb and into the corner past a bamboozled David James, but the celebrations were again raucous.
The Italy striker scored 16 goals in the league that season, including another hat-trick against Derby (a club he later played for), but his efforts were not enough to save Middlesbrough from relegation after they were deducted three points for failing to fulfil their fixture against Blackburn in December. Even though Middlesbrough reached both domestic cup finals that season, Ravanelli decided against playing in the second tier, having promised “100% commitment in an effort to win trophies” when he signed. He swapped the north of England for the south of France, moving to Marseille in September 1997 after a single season on Teeside.
Coventry City have not played in the Premier League for 18 years, but they remain the only side to have provided two opening day hat-tricks. Dion Dublin emulated Mick Quinn’s achievement in August 1997, scoring all three goals as Coventry came from behind twice to beat Chelsea 3-2 at Highfield Road. His first was a header from a throw-in, his second was a header from a corner and his third, perhaps unpredictably, was a lovely half-volley that he sliced into the far corner of Ed de Goey’s net.
Dublin was retired by the time Gabby Agbonlahor scored the next opening-day hat-trick. Having signed new four-year contract with Aston Villa two days before the season began, Agbonlahor was clearly in a hurry to show his worth to the club. He took just seven minutes to put three goals past his England colleague Joe Hart as Villa beat Manchester City 4-2 at Villa Park. Agbonlahor, who was only 21 at the time, scored with his right foot in the 69th, with his head in the 74th minute and with his left foot the 76th minute, making this the perfect way to start the season. It wasn’t so perfect for Mark Hughes, who was taking charge of City for the first time.
The most recent hat-trick scored on the opening weekend came in 2010, when Didier Drogba helped reigning champions Chelsea thrash newly promoted West Brom 6-0 at Stamford Bridge. His first was from a free-kick some 30 yards out, his second was a scruffy tap-in ( although it was his 133rd goal for Chelsea, which took him past Jimmy Greaves in the club’s scoring charts) and his third owed much to a wicked deflection off a defender. Drogba had also scored three for Chelsea in the final game of the previous season – an 8-0 demolition of Wigan – which makes him one of six players (Les Ferdinand, Ian Wright, Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane) who have scored hat-tricks in consecutive Premier League games.
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