Moment(s) in time | A hat-trick of hat-tricks at Villa Park

Villa Park had been a happy hunting ground until our 2-1 defeat at the end of last season - our first loss at Villa's home in the Premier League since New Year's Day, 2008.

Before then, we'd won nine and drawn two of previous 11 visits in the competition, with two stand-out goalscoring performances - hat-tricks for Gareth Bale in a 4-0 win in 2012 and, almost 10 years later, Heung-Min Son in another 4-0 win in April, 2022.

As we prepare to return to the claret and blue side of Birmingham for a huge game on Sunday (1pm UK), we take a look back at Gareth and Sonny's trebles, plus another hat-trick before the Premier League era in 1986 that proved the starting point for the best individual goalscoring campaign in the Club's history.

Let's start there...

Clive Allen

Villa 0-3 Spurs
First Division
23 August, 1986

No-one could have foreseen how the season was going to unfold for Clive Allen as he stepped out at Villa Park for the opening day of the 1986/87 campaign in August, 1986. It was a dream start for the striker and David Pleat's team, a convincing 3-0 victory with Mitchell Thomas and Richard Gough making their debuts and a line-up including the likes of Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle, Tony Galvin and Mark Falco up front with Clive. As we know now, Clive would go on to score 49 goals in all competitions that season, beating the previous best Club mark of 42 from Jimmy Greaves and Martin Chivers. It's a record that still stands - Harry Kane's closest was 41 in 2017/18. Clive spearheaded one of the best Spurs teams of the modern era, yet one that frustratingly missed out on silverware - third in the First Division, runners-up in the FA Cup and League Cup semi-finalists.

Speaking on Off The Shelf, our official podcast, Clive recalled that 49-goal campaign in 1986/87. "From day one that season... I scored a hat-trick on the opening day at Villa Park and it just went from there. Then, 10 games in, 10 goals, I did an interview with Jimmy Greaves on On The Ball, his TV show, and he said to me, 'you know what son, you could break my record' and I didn't have a clue, I said 'what record's that, Jim?', I knew the number of goals he had in total, so he said, 'I scored 44 in one season (42 competitive, two in the Charity Shield), at this rate, you'll break my record'. I laughed, I said, 'you're joking Jim, that's impossible'. But I equalled it in the FA Cup semi-final against Watford and got my 49th in the FA Cup Final against Coventry, then scraped the crossbar, that's as close as I got to my 50th."

Gareth Bale

Villa 0-4 Spurs
Premier League
Boxing Day, 2012

A milestone day in a sensational season for Gareth Bale - his first hat-trick in the Premier League - as his performances spearheaded a team that chased Champions League qualification to the final minute of the final day. This victory provided extra Christmas cheer for fans at Villa Park as we stormed away with it in the second half. Jermain Defoe opened the scoring from Kyle Naughton's pass on 57 minutes with Bale clinical in front of goal on 61, 73 and 84 minutes. We lost just three of our final 26 matches in the 2012/13 campaign, with the Welsh wizard weighing in with 21 league goals - the first player since Jurgen Klinsmann in 1994/95 to hit 20 - as we finished fifth by a point to Arsenal.

Looking back at post-match interviews, Gareth was typically humble. “It was great to get the hat-trick, my first in the Premier League, but I couldn’t have done it without the lads. It was a great team performance.” The words of manager Andre Villas-Boas and Jan Vertonghen paint a better picture of Bale's displays at that time. "He was brilliant," said Andre. "He’s such a top player and he can always make the difference. His finishing is very accurate. He has been prolific in front of goal this season and I think he is enjoying getting into those positions. His left foot is wonderful and the power and direction he applies on the ball is wonderful too." Jan added: "He was amazing. His left foot is lethal. There were good assists in there as well, but you know if he’s in front of goal with his left foot it’s 80 per cent a goal.”

Heung-Min Son

Villa 0-4 Spurs
Premier League
9 April, 2022

Another Spurs team flying high with confidence delivered another superb display at Villa Park in the crucial run in to the 2021/22 season. This victory was all about the Harry Kane/Heung-Min Son partnership, with this time Harry pulling the creative strings and Sonny delivering in front of goal. Sonny drilled us into an early lead but we had to dig in under Villa pressure until the break. The second half was a different story as Deki Kulusevski curled home brilliantly for 2-0 before Sonny completed his hat-trick, his second from such a clever assist from Harry, who glanced Cuti Romero's pass into his partner in crime's direction for a clean run on goal. We won 10 of our last 14 matches, scoring 38 goals, as we moved from seventh to overhaul Arsenal and qualify for the Champions League in the final week of the season, a memorable second half the season completed when Sonny netted twice on the final day at Norwich to earn a share of the Golden Boot. He scored 14 goals in those final 10 matches, Harry weighed in with 10.

Speaking to us afterwards, Sonny said: “It’s a special day because this is a really hard place. We showed a really great personality, great character, especially after the first half, because some teams are going to lose here in this kind of situation. I thought that from what we do as a team, I’m just so grateful. We are not selfish, everyone. We play with each other, enjoy passing, being unselfish, It’s so good to watch, so good to play. I enjoy playing. I’m grateful for every single player who was playing, who wasn’t playing, they support me always, giving me really good confidence with beautiful words, beautiful attitude. I’m really grateful for every single player.”