Except for the blip against Arsenal, Chelsea have been scoring in bunches lately. Six against Qarabag, five against Nottingham Forest, and four against Stoke City just yesterday. Those may not be the most illustrious of opponents, but the goals count just the same.

An added statistical quirk is that a Chelsea player scored a hat-trick against both Forest and Stoke, with Michy Batshuayi accomplishing that feat on Wednesday and Álvaro Morata replying in kind (and with his feet nonetheless!) on Saturday. This seems an unlikely sequence, and I had assumed that something like this hasn’t happened in quite some time, if ever. Turns out, I should have just checked @ChelseaChadder, who as usual, had it already figured out.

Today is the 1st time since 1997 that @ChelseaFC have scored hattricks in consecutive games. #CFC #Chelsea — Chad (@ChelseaChadder) September 23, 2017

Almost exactly twenty years ago, Gianfranco Zola and Tore Andre Flo went back-to-back, with Zola hitting three against Derby County at the Bridge and Flo following that up with his famous three goals at White Hart Lane in Chelsea’s 6-1 win there. Highlights of the latter always make for wonderful viewing.

Zola’s hat-trick may not be viewed as often, but it’s Zola, so of course it’s great. Incidentally, the fourth goal in this game was scored by none other than current Stoke City boss, Mark Hughes. Wonder if he recalled his sequence of events as Morata poked in the third on Saturday. (Probably not.)

This record is not to be confused by hat-tricks in consecutive league games, which, you might be entirely unsuprised to learn, is held by Didier Drogba, who scored a hat-trick against Wigan on the final day of the 2009-10 season and then picked that straight back up in the opening day win.

In any case, congrats to Álvaro and Michy. May they be the first moany at Chelsea.