As Erling Haaland nonchalantly lifted the ball over Lukasz Fabianski in the 83rd minute to complete his eighth Premier League hat-trick, he joined an elite trio of players. Thierry Henry, Michael Owen and Harry Kane have all scored the same number of hat-tricks but it took them appreciably longer than the Manchester City striker to reach that mark. This was the Norwegian’s 69th appearance, while Henry achieved the feat in 258 matches, Kane 320 and Owen 326. It was also the second time that Haaland has scored successive league hat-tricks, after his three goals against Ipswich the previous week. In his first season he opened his hat-trick account against Crystal Palace on 27 August 2022 and then repeated the trick four days later against Nottingham Forest. Only six players have ever scored hat-tricks in consecutive Premier League matches. During the inaugural Premier League season Les Ferdinand was the first to achieve the feat. In doing so for Queens Park Rangers over three days at Easter 1993, Ferdinand set a record for the shortest time in between hat-tricks, which has not been broken since. By contrast the longest gap between successive hat-tricks was more than three months as Didier Drogba straddled two seasons by scoring on the last day of the 2009-10 season when Chelsea thrashed Wigan 8-0 to win the title and then on the opening day of the next season when he notched another three in a 6-0 win over West Bromwich Albion. Ian Wright, Wayne Rooney and Kane are the others to score successive hat-tricks. Wright did so in March 1994 against Ipswich and Southampton while Rooney followed up his treble in United’s 8-2 demolition of Arsenal with three goals in a 5-0 away win at Bolton, early in the 2011-12 season. Kane is the only other player alongside Haaland to manage this feat twice. The England striker’s first brace of successive hat-tricks came in the last two matches of the 2016-17 season, in a 6-1 win at Leicester followed three days later in a 7-1 victory at Hull City. Later that year, and coincidentally also within three days of each other, he did so in a 3-0 win at Turf Moor and then in a 5-2 victory against Southampton at Wembley, Tottenham’s temporary home. There are now only three players ahead of Haaland for Premier League hat-tricks. The next player in his cross-hairs is Robbie Fowler, who is one ahead of Haaland on nine. Fowler’s first came in October 1993 for Liverpool against Southampton and his ninth came more than eight years later for Leeds at Bolton. Second on the list is Alan Shearer with 11, nine of which were for Blackburn Rovers, the other two for Newcastle. Shearer’s first came in October 1993 in a 3-3 draw with Leeds, with his last six years later in an 8-0 mauling of Sheffield Wednesday at St. James’ Park. Leading the way for Premier League hat-tricks is former City player Sergio Agüero, who finished with a dozen after 275 appearances. The Argentinian’s first hat-trick came against Wigan in September 2011, but it was another three years before he struck again in October 2014. At his current rate of scoring, with a treble every 8.5 matches, it is feasible that Haaland could equal Agüero’s total within the next year and emulate the record total over the same length of time it took between Agüero’s opening hat-trick and his next one. Having reached eight hat-tricks in almost exactly two years, unsurprisingly Haaland is the fastest, with Shearer and Kane not too far behind in less than three years. Manchester City have reaped the rewards from Haaland’s exploits and indeed his latest hat-trick against West Ham has put City on top of the all-time Premier League list with 43, one ahead of Liverpool whose last hat-trick was Mohamed Salah’s in October 2021 at Old Trafford. Since Haaland arrived from Borussia Dortmund, there have been 27 Premier League hat-tricks, of which City have scored 11 (Phil Foden scored the other three), or just more than 40%. In comparison, there are only two clubs that have scored more than one in that period: Chelsea with four and Tottenham with two. Haaland’s latest hat-trick was the 18th by a Norwegian in the Premier League, which has pushed Norway up the charts to being the joint leading nation (excluding England) alongside the might of Argentina, France and the Netherlands. The other Norwegian hat-trick scorers are Ole Gunnar Solskjær with three, Steffen Iversen and Josh King with two each and one by Jan Åge Fjørtoft, Tore André Flo and John Carew. With eight to his name, Haaland has already outgunned the likes of Brazil, Scotland and Wales who have seven each between all their players.