Football: Hat-trick in 44 minutes - All Whites striker Chris Wood makes English Premier League history

Chris Wood celebrates scoring his hat-trick goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Photo / Getty

All Whites striker Chris Wood has made history in the English Premier League after going on a goal-scoring spree in the first half of Burnley's match against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday.

Three goals in his side's first 44 minutes against Wolves made Wood the first Kiwi to score a Premier League hat-trick, with New Zealand now the 46th different nation to be represented by a hat-trick scorer in the competition.

The hat-trick was also the first in 23 years of EPL competition to take place in the first half alone, while he also became the first Burnley player to score a hat trick against Wolves since George Beel in 1931.

Chris Wood celebrates scoring his hat-trick goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Photo / Getty

Wood's goal-scoring feats in the EPL are now piling up in admirable fashion. By eclipsing the 10-goals-in-a-season mark for the fourth time in four years, Wood joined some elite company with only Mohamed Salah, Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Alexandre Lacazette and Son Heung-Min achieving at the same level.

Further to those, Wood has also now scored more EPL goals for Burnley than any other player in the club's history.

Burnley's eventual 4-0 victory was their most comprehensive since AFC Bournemouth were thumped by the same score in 2018 and their biggest top-flight away victory since 1965; shoring up the side's survival hopes in the top flight of English football.

"The season's not over yet," cautioned Sean Dyche, the Burnley manager. "And your previous result doesn't guarantee the next one, but these were three important points from a very thorough performance.

"The stats show we're not lacking in a work ethic, but there was real quality here and I've always maintained that we can compete when everyone's fit. Individuals played very well of course, but as a team we got the ball forwards quickly and asked questions. We've been putting in good performances, even in those defeats, but here performance matched result."

Burnley will surely be playing Premier League football next season. Wolves certainly will too, but they were wretched: outrun as well as outplayed in a defeat most supine. In a troubling performance, Wolves were as short on quality as they were in endeavour.

- with The Daily Telegraph UK