Cole Palmer sets Premier League and Chelsea records with latest hat trick

Molineux, Saturday — Before the half-time whistle had sounded, Chelsea’s 23-year-old forward Cole Palmer had already settled the contest against Wolverhampton Wanderers, dispatching two penalties and capping a sweeping team move to register his fourth hat-trick for the club. The treble propelled him to 51 Chelsea goals in just 114 appearances and etched his name deeper into the club’s record books.

With all four of his hat-tricks coming in Premier League fixtures, Palmer has surpassed Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, each of whom managed three league trebles for the Blues. Three of Palmer’s four have been completed before the interval, making him the first player in Premier League history to score three first-half hat-tricks.

Palmer’s haul draws him level with Drogba’s overall Chelsea hat-trick tally; only Lampard, Peter Osgood, Bobby Tambling (eight), Kerry Dixon (eight), George Hilsdon (nine) and Jimmy Greaves (13) remain ahead of him in the club’s all-time rankings.

The achievement arrives amid a campaign disrupted by injury. Palmer admitted the lay-offs have been unfamiliar territory.

“I’ve never been injured before in my career. This is something new to me, and I’m still finding out how to deal with it,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’ve played a game this season fully fit. I’ve been going into games thinking, ‘Can I do certain things? Can I not?’ Overthinking it. The staff have been really good. I’ll get through it.”

Palmer’s latest milestone is the 162nd hat-trick in Chelsea’s history, scored by 80 different players, and the 20th since 2016. Noni Madueke’s treble in the corresponding fixture last season began the recent sequence; Palmer’s February 2026 effort against Wolves continues it, underlining his status as the club’s foremost modern-day marksmen from three-goal performances.

Chelsea will hope the forward’s return to full fitness accompanies a second-half surge, beginning with the momentum gleaned from a match that was effectively over inside 45 minutes.

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