Photo via BBC Sport

How many times has a player scored a hat-trick in a Premier League loss?

Brian Brobbey has joined a rare group of players by scoring a hat-trick for a losing team in the Premier League, after Sunderland fell 5-3 to Manchester City. This marks the sixth occurrence since the league began in 1992 and the first instance in nearly twenty years, following Roque Santa Cruz's similar feat for Blackburn Rovers in December 2007 during a 5-3 defeat against Wigan Athletic.

Prior to Santa Cruz, only three other players managed the achievement during the 1990s. Dwight Yorke accomplished the feat for Aston Villa in a 4-3 loss to Newcastle in September 1996, and Dion Dublin scored three for Coventry City in a 4-3 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in December 1995.

Matt le Tissier stands alone as the only competitor to achieve this outcome twice, doing so for Southampton during losses to Oldham Athletic in May 1993 and Nottingham Forest in August 1995.