Football is generally not considered a high-scoring sport, and hat-tricks are far from common. In Chelsea’s 113-year history (105 seasons), Giroud’s triple against Dynamo Kiev last night was only the 148th. From the thousands of players to have passed through the tunnels of Stamford Bridge, Giroud’s only the 71st to score at least three in one match.
The last six Chelsea hat-tricks, since 2015 (which is how far Chelsea: The Complete Record reference book goes):
Jan 2016 — Oscar: 3 vs. MK Dons (a) 5-1 — FA Cup
Sep 2017 — Batshuayi: 3 vs. Nottingham Forest (h) 5-1 — League Cup
Sep 2017 — Morata: 3 vs. Stoke City (a) 4-0 — Premier League
Sep 2018 — Hazard: 3 vs. Cardiff City (h) 4-1 — Premier League
Oct 2018 — Loftus-Cheek: 3 vs. BATE (h) 3-1 — Europa League
Mar 2019 — Giroud: 3 vs. Dynamo Kiev (a) 5-0 — Europa League
It’s been a good year for hat-tricks. Before Eden Hazard got the party started against Cardiff City, we had to wait a full calendar year for one. Now we’ve had three in about half that time. Giroud, like Loftus-Cheek before him in October, took advantage of weak Europa League opposition to notch his treble.
Giroud’s hat-trick may not have the cachet and meaning of homegrown hopeful Loftus-Cheek doing so, but Giroud did it in perfect style: left foot, right foot, header.
The perfect hat-trick.
1 - Europa League top goalscorer Olivier Giroud is the first player to score a perfect hat-trick (left-foot, right-foot & header) in the competition this season. Variety.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 14, 2019
It was his first in Chelsea colors, third since moving to England (twice he scored three for Arsenal in 2015-16), and sixth in his career. He’s scored at least one hat-trick for each of his last four clubs now: Tours FC (also did it twice), Montpellier, Arsenal, and now Chelsea. He’s scored one for France, too, in a friendly against Paraguay.
World Cup winner Giroud, who was once again picked ahead of Alexandre Lacazette (14 goals) and Wissam Ben Yedder (26! goals) by France for next week’s international break, has now reached 10 goals for the season, just like he’s done every season since 2007.
“[Giroud] is a different profile altogether. They have done a lot of good things but I had a choice to make. Olivier is getting less time at his club but he knows how to be effective when he is with us.”
-Didier Deschamps; source: Inside Futbol
Asked why he doesn’t score more in the Premier League, Olivier managed to come up with a fairly amusing answer, even, last night.
“I play mostly in the Europa League. That’s why I score maybe less goals in the [Premier League].”
-Olivier Giroud; source: BT Sport via Star
Nine of those ten goals have come in Europe’s second competition, and if he keeps this up, we might just go on to win the whole thing.
“It was very, very good. In the last period every time he has been on the pitch he was able to play really very well. He scored nine goals in this competition. Olivier is a very important player for us. I am very happy for him and his hat-trick, and I am very happy with him.”
-Maurizio Sarri; source: Chelsea FC
Chelsea’s fate for the quarterfinals and beyond now rests with the ball fondling of UEFA’s Europa elite eight bracket draw. No opponent will come as easy as Dynamo Kiev at this point, but the team showed their potential on Thursday. Now we just have to keep it up.
“I’m very pleased with all of the goals I scored and the assist I give to Callum, we gave a great team performance today.
“Tonight we’ve done well at set-pieces, and it’s nice because when you can score goals from set-pieces you understand that you can get more points at the end of the championship, and obviously when you play Europa League.”
-Olivier Giroud; source: BT Sport via Star
Better than Pelé, dont’cha know?