On September 20, 2026, at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, Brian Brobbey produced the kind of afternoon most strikers dream about: three Premier League goals. Sunderland still went home without a point. City’s 5-3 victory made Brobbey only the sixth player in the competition’s history to score a hat-trick and finish on the losing side.
It had been nearly 19 years since the previous example. According to the Premier League’s official review, Blackburn’s Roque Santa Cruz was the last to do it, against Wigan in December 2007. The same report says Brobbey became Sunderland’s first Premier League hat-trick scorer since Jermain Defoe in 2016.
Three replies, but no lead
Brobbey’s first two goals were equalisers. City went ahead through Enzo Fernandez, Brobbey answered, Rayan Cherki restored City’s lead and Brobbey answered again. Antoine Semenyo then put the hosts in front for a third time before half-time. The league says this was the first time City had taken the lead three times in the opening half of a Premier League match.
Semenyo scored again after the break to make it 4-2. Brobbey completed his hat-trick to pull Sunderland back within one, but Erling Haaland added City’s fifth late on. RTÉ’s independent match report confirms the 5-3 score and Brobbey’s three goals. The Guardian match report likewise describes his two first-half equalisers and the third goal that narrowed the deficit to 4-3.
The numbers made the result even stranger. The Premier League reported that Sunderland generated 4.32 expected goals, compared with City’s 2.72. Expected goals estimate the quality of scoring chances, rather than the actual goals, so that gap does not overturn the result. It does help explain why this was such an unusually open defeat for the visitors.
A personal milestone with a cruel ending
A hat-trick is normally enough to dominate the day’s highlights and secure at least a share of the points. Brobbey did both the difficult parts — scoring three times and twice dragging his team level — but Sunderland never actually took the lead. City responded every time the pressure rose.
There was another odd statistical footnote: the league said Brobbey’s first-half brace, completed in 33 minutes, was the earliest by a Sunderland player in a Premier League game since Darren Bent in 2010. By full-time, that bright individual achievement had become part of a much rarer and less welcome list.
For City, the win preserved a perfect start to the league season and moved the team three points clear at the top. For Brobbey, it was a memorable reminder that football’s most celebrated individual scoring feat does not always decide the match. He left Manchester with the ball and a place in the record books; City kept the points.
