#3 Tottenham 9-1 Wigan, 22nd November 2009
During the reign of Harry Redknapp, Tottenham Hotspur were regularly known for their confident, attacking style of football. When Wigan Athletic turned up at White Hart Lane on a cold Sunday in November, nobody could have foreseen the level that Spurs would elevate to during the course of those 90 minutes.
What makes the score line all the more remarkable is that all but one of those goals came in the second half!
Blown apart by 5 Jermaine Defoe strikes, Wigan and the then manager Roberto Martinez must have been begging for mercy before the full-time whistle.
Tottenham opened the scoring after just 9 minutes when Peter Crouch headed them into the lead.
It remained that way until 6 minutes after the break, when Jermaine Defoe went on a scoring spree and delivered a 7-minute hat-trick – the second quickest hat-trick in Premier League History – and put the result beyond any doubt. (Robbie Fowler still holds the quickest, for Liverpool against Arsenal back in 1994)
From then on it was simply a case of how many Defoe – and Spurs – were going to score. The Tottenham right winger Aaron Lennon got involved on 64 minutes steering in a rebound from a Peter Crouch header that was superbly saved by Wigan ‘keeper Chris Kirkland.
The Latics shot-stopper went on to make several world class saves over the course of the game and without him, the scoreline (as bad as it was) would have been a lot worse.
After Lennon made it 5, Defoe got on the scoresheet twice more, after 69 and 87 minutes. The rout was then completed by David Bentley (who replaced the unplayable Aaron Lennon to rapturous applause) on 88 minutes and Nico Kranjcar with a drive into the top corner of the Wigan net on 94 minutes.
Poor, poor Wigan.
