Chelsea’s Cole Palmer makes Premier League history with four first-half goals

After equalizing for Chelsea in the 21st minute, Palmer converted a penalty and a superb free-kick inside the next 10 minutes to complete his hat-trick. He then added his fourth shortly before halftime with a first-time finish from Jadon Sancho’s pass.

Four other players have scored four goals in the same half of a Premier League match, but the 22-year-old Palmer is the first to achieve the feat in the opening 45 minutes.

He even had further chances go awry in that time, too, hitting the post with one attempt and finding the net from an offside position with another. Later in the second half, Palmer almost got a fifth when he was one-on-one with Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, though he put his shot wide.

“I didn’t know about (the record), the lads just told me then,” Palmer said in an interview with Sky Sports after the match. “I’m really happy about it. When I missed the chance in the second half, I was fuming because it was early in the second half, I think it was the 55th, 56th minute, so I should have scored that.”

Georginio Rutter gave Brighton an early lead at Stamford Bridge when Chelsea failed to clear the ball from the area, allowing the Frenchman to head into the net despite pressure from goalkeeper Robert Sánchez and defender Marc Cucurella.