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Cole Palmer became the first player in Premier League history to score four goals in the first half of a match during Chelsea’s 4-2 victory over Brighton at Stamford Bridge.
Palmer continued his sublime Chelsea career, scoring his sixth in six games, including a wonderful free-kick in the 31st minute.
The Blues were far from their best and had initially gone a goal down in the opening stages in west London.
Enzo Maresca’s men’s started sloppily and a poor piece of goalkeeping saw them ship an early goal. Brighton attacked down the left and, after Levi Colwill failed to deal with a routine clearance, Robert Sanchez was indecisive with his decision to punch and Georginio Rutter beat him to the ball to nod into the empty net.
The Blues had been second best. They were on the wrong end of every duel and their passes were inaccurate prior to Palmer being slipped through one-on-one against the run of play. The 22-year-old’s scuffed effort onto the post acted as a warm-up to his clinical showing later on.
After Adam Webster’s misplaced pass back to his keeper was pounced upon by Nicolas Jackson, the in-form striker, who scored twice at West Ham last week, set up Palmer with a pass across the six-yard box for him to tap home.
The Blues had ridden the storm and soon after the restart they burst forward to win a penalty. A cross-field switch to Jadon Sancho saw the winger burst past Carlos Baleba to draw the foul and Palmer made no mistake with a placed spot-kick into the bottom left-hand corner.
Palmer’s magical afternoon went up a notch and he completed a sensational hat-trick from a set-piece. He whipped a superb free-kick into the top left corner to make it 3-1.
But, typical of Chelsea’s afternoon, another poor pass from Sanchez was intercepted by Brighton’s Baleba as the visitors brought one back.
Palmer was not content with three. The former Manchester City man continued to pick up neat pockets in behind Brighton’s back line and, after he combined with Sancho down the left once more, he took little time in blasting his effort first-time towards the near post and past Bart Verbruggen for a fourth.
Last season’s Premier League young player of the year finally looked human in the second half when he scuffed a one-on-one wide with his weaker right foot before his audacious half-volley clipped the bar minutes later.
After Maresca flexed Chelsea’s strength in depth with a series of substitutions, the Blues slowed down the match and made it three league wins on the spin.
