Michail Antonio made West Ham United history when he scored all four goals in the Irons’ 4-0 Premier League win at Norwich City on Saturday.
The No30 became the first Hammer to score four in a single Premier League fixture, eclipsing the achievements of hat-trick heroes Tony Cottee, Paul Kitson – who netted two trebles – Marlon Harewood, Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll.
Antonio’s Carrow Road salvo was the first time a West Ham player had scored four in a single game since Leroy Rosenior did so in a 5-2 Full Members’ Cup win over West Bromwich Albion at the Boleyn Ground in November 1988.
Prior to that, Cottee, who would later become the Hammers’ first Premier League hat-trick hero in a 3-0 home win over Manchester City in December 1994, had scored four in the Club record 10-0 League Cup thrashing of Bury in October 1983.
League-wise, prior to Antonio’s efforts in Norfolk, David Cross had been the last West Ham player to score four in a single top-flight match, doing so in a 4-0 thumping of Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in September 1981. Cross had also scored four in a 5-1 Second Division victory at Grimsby Town in April of the same year.
When it comes to Premier League records, Antonio was the first to score four in an away game since Harry Kane, who did so for Tottenham at Leicester City in May 2017, and the eighth player to do so in the competition’s 27-year history.
The 30-year-old matched the achievements of Efan Ekoko for Norwich City at Everton in 1993, Gianluca Vialli for Chelsea at Barnsley in August 1997, Jurgen Klinsmann for Tottenham at Wimbledon in May 1998, Michael Owen for Liverpool at West Brom in April 2003, Andriy Arshavin for Arsenal at Liverpool in April 2009 and Edin Dzeko for Manchester City at Tottenham in August 2011.
However, while Antonio’s four-goal performance was unforgettable, he needed two more to match the all-time Club record of six goals in a single game held jointly by West Ham’s two most-prolific goalscorers, Vic Watson and Sir Geoff Hurst.
Watson scored his double hat-trick in an 8-2 First Division win over Leeds United at the Boleyn Ground in February 1929, while he also scored all four in a 4-1 FA Cup fourth-round win over the same opposition the following season!
The 326-goal striker had also bagged four in a 5-1 Second Division victory at Crystal Palace in March 1923.
Sir Geoff, meanwhile, got six of his 249 career goals in the 8-0 First Division win over Sunderland at the Boleyn Ground in October 1968. Prior to that, the FA Cup, European Cup Winners’ Cup and FIFA World Cup winner had also plundered four in a 6-1 First Division win over Fulham in November 1966, and all four in a 4-1 League Cup victory over Bolton Wanderers in October 1967.
Brian Dear and Syd Puddefoot managed five goals in a single competitive fixture, with the former doing so in the space of 21 minutes in a 6-1 First Division win over West Brom in April 1965, and the latter in an 8-1 FA Cup win over Chesterfield in January 1914.
Puddefoot also scored four goals in a single game twice in the 1920/21 season, in Second Division wins over Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry City.
He, Rosenior, Cottee, Cross, Watson, Hurst, Dear and now Antonio follow Billy Grassam, Danny Shea, John Dick, Vic Keeble and Harry Obeney as the 13 different players to have scored four goals in the same competitive match in Claret and Blue.
