Midfielder Cole Palmer provided Chelsea with all the offence they would need on Saturday as the club cruised to a 3-1 win over Wolverhampton.
Palmer notched two penalty kick goals at the 13 minute, and 35 minute mark, and added a third tally before the half at the 38 minute mark to give him a first half hat-trick. With the goals, the 23 year old etches his name into the Premier League record books as the first player to have 3x first half hat-tricks in league history.
Prior to Saturday, Palmer netted three times before half against Everton in April of 2024, and against Brighton & Hove Albion nearly 5 months later. Andrew Cole, Michael Owen, and Erling Haaland all have 2x first half hat-tricks to their name, as Palmer now stands alone in storied history of the Premier League.
With the goals, the budding superstar now has 51 tallies across 100 appearances for Chelsea across all competitions. The Blues now sport a 12-7-6 record on the season, good for 5th place on the Premier League table, and are winners of 4 consecutive contests.
It’s been an up and down season for Palmer who has been battling injuries for the first time in his young career. The native of Manchester has been limited to just 11 starts in the Premier League this season due to a variety of nagging ailments.
Nevertheless, he was all smiles after his record setting performance on Saturday. “It felt good to score some goals and get three points,” Palmer told reporters after the final whistle.
“I don’t think [I’m 100 percent] just yet. Obviously people don’t know what goes on behind the scenes but being injured the whole season is not ideal and when I’m not able to perform as I want to because I’ve been injured, and still dealing with the injury, but hopefully I can get over the injury soon by managing it.”
“I know what level I can provide when I feel 100% fit. Not being 100% fit isn’t ideal, I still feel like I can help the team but when I’m back to full fitness I feel like I can go to another level.”
Chelsea will have the next few days off before returning to action on Tuesday against Leeds United. They’ll then wrap up the week with a 4th Round FA Cup matchup with Hull City on Friday February 13th.
Photo: pantkiewicz. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.