We’ve all heard of the extraordinary ‘perfect hat-trick’ in football – left foot, right foot, header. But in Chelsea’s 0-6 dismantling of Southampton at St Mary’s on Saturday, Chelsea forward Timo Werner may have achieved an even more spectacular rarity.
Werner has struggled for goal-scoring form since his move to west London, and the first 20 minutes at Southampton at the weekend, almost perfectly encapsulated the German’s luck in a Chelsea shirt.
In the opening stages of the game, Chelsea broke forward on a counter-attack from a Southampton corner. Having carried the ball from the halfway line, Werner let fly from the edge of the box, only to see his effort rebound off the left-hand post.
Just moments later, Werner burst into the 18-yard box once again, only to see his point-blank header rattle the crossbar of Fraser Forster’s goal. It was at this point that Match of the Day commentator, Steve Wilson (at BBC One, 11.05pm) poked a playful jab at Timo Werner’s misfortune in the game’s opening stages, “there’s only three bits of woodwork in Southampton’s goal, and Timo Werner’s hit two of them – we’ve only played six minutes”.
“Well, if he hits the other post he might be able to take the whole goal home!”, Wilson added.
In perfect fashion, at around the 30-minute mark of the game, a combination of Havertz and Werner dispossessed Salisu on the edge of his own 18-yard box. Werner then, once again, carried the ball into the box in a dazzling run, before smacking the right-hand post, only for Havertz to tuck in the rebound for Chelsea’s fourth. Werner’s dismay was reluctantly turned into joy as his fellow countryman added to Chelsea’s lead, as the frustrated forward capped off the ‘imperfect hat-trick’ just 30 minutes into the match – left post, right post, crossbar.
Chelsea went on to win the game 0-6, bouncing back from their lackluster Brentford and Real Madrid displays.