Which player has scored the most goals in a Premier League game?

Tom Weber

28 Sept 2024 16:31 BST
3 min read

The Premier League is the home of the world's best strikers and has seen some crazy games in its illustrious history.

Every forward dreams of bagging a hat-trick in a big game, but it is very rare indeed for players to find the net three times in a single fixture. It is even more difficult to score more than three times in just 90 minutes.

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On the rare occasions it does happen, it is something to be remembered. Chelsea attacker Cole Palmer enjoyed just such a game that will be talked about for years to come when he scored four times against Brighton on September 28, 2024.

However, what Palmer did on the day was actually unprecedented. All four of his strikes came in the first half of the match, which is something no other player in Premier League history has ever managed to do.

Despite setting a record that may never be broken, Palmer is not the player who has scored the most goals in a single Premier League game. That honour is actually shared by five legends.

Which player has scored the most goals in a Premier League game?

The record for the most goals scored by a single player in a Premier League game currently stands at five and it is a feat that has been achieved by five Premier League greats.

The stars in question are Andy Cole, Alan Shearer, Jermain Defoe, Dimitar Berbatov and Sergio Aguero, all of whom are retired. Before the founding of the Premier League in 1992, Joe Payne scored a whopping ten times for Luton Town in a 12-0 Football League victory over Bristol Rovers in 1935.

Andy Cole was the first Premier League player to score five times in a single fixture, doing so against Ipswich Town in the 1994/95 season. The Manchester United legend netted his goals in a record-setting 9-0 victory over the Tractor Boys.

The second player to hit that figure was arguably the Premier League's greatest-ever striker, Alan Shearer. Newcastle beat Sheffield Wednesday 8-0 in the 1999/2000 campaign and the sharpshooter netted five times.

It took a whole ten years for another player to achieve this feat, but it finally happened when Jermain Defoe hit five for Tottenham against Wigan Athletic in 2009/10.

Just a season later, it happened again when Dimitar Berbatov hit Blackburn Rovers for five in a 7-1 demolition at the hands of Man Utd.

The most recent player to score five times in a single game is Sergio Aguero. The Man City legend was in stunning form when the Cityzens defeated Newcastle 6-1 in 2015/16, the season that saw Leicester claim their historic title while Aguero and company only came fourth.