Has there ever been a Premier League match in which two players from opposite sides scored a hat-trick? Asked John Hankin.
This unusual feat has happened once since the Premier League was established in the 1992-93 season. At the JJB Stadium in December 2007, Roque Santa Cruz scored all three Blackburn Rovers goals - but Marcus Bent also scored three, and Wigan Athletic ended up winning 5-3.
The only other instance of two hat-tricks in the same game came in May 2003, when both Jermaine Pennant (on Arsenal debut) and Robert Pires scored three times in a 6-1 win over Southampton at Highbury, a fortnight before the two teams met in the FA Cup final at Cardiff, when Pires was on target again to give Arsenal the trophy 1-0.
Eric Cantona scored the first Premier League hat-trick, for Leeds against Spurs in August 1992. Alan Shearer leads the way with 11 hat-tricks in the competition; Robbie Fowler collected nine, Thierry Henry and Michael Owen eight.
Didier Drogba (2010), Les Ferdinand (in three days in April 1993), Wayne Rooney (2011) and Ian Wright (1994) have all scored hat-tricks in successive Premier League matches.