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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Alex Young

Chelsea: Cole Palmer makes Premier League history with FOUR first-half goals

Cole Palmer made Premier League history on Saturday by becoming the first player to score four goals in the first-half of a game.

The Chelsea star went into the game against Brighton without a home goal to his name for the Blues this season, and looked to face a tough task against the unbeaten visitors.

Brighton did not take long to take the lead as Georginio Rutter headed home into an empty net thanks to a miserable attempt to intercept from Robert Sanchez, facing his former club.

Chelsea looked rattled by the early goal, apart from Palmer who soon after ran through and dinked the ball over Bart Verbruggen only to be denied by the post.

Seconds later, Palmer did have the ball in the back of the net but celebrations were cut short by the offside then.

Seconds after that, the breakthrough for Palmer as Nicolas Jackson raced away from Brighton's ill-advised high line and cut the ball back for Palmer to slot into an empty net.

The floodgates had opened and minutes later Palmer added his seconds from the penalty spot after Carles Baleba had fouled Jadon Sancho in the earlier.

Minutes later, Palmer had completed a 10-minute hat-trick by curling a superby free kick beyond Verbruggen and into the top corner.

Brighton hit back almost immediately thanks to another Sanchez howler, passing straight to Baleba, but there was still time for Palmer to race through a fire inside the near post for his fourth of the first half.

No player has ever scored the same in the first half of a Premier League game, but Jermain Defoe scored five in a second half of a game in 2009 as Tottenham beat Wigan.

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