4 March 1995 - That 8-2 Result Doesn't Seem Quite So Bad Now

On 4 March 1995, Manchester United striker Andy Cole netted a record 5 times against Ipswich en route to a 9-0 win. It remains the largest margin of victory in Premier League history.

United were the two-time defending champions, having won both titles since the Premier League's creation in 1992, and were challenging for a third. Ipswich, meanwhile, were in the relegation zone, just one spot off the table's bottom. But they had beaten United earlier in the season, claiming a 3-2 win at Portman Road back in September.

Playing before a crowd of almost 44,000 at Old Trafford, United showed early on that they were not expecting a repeat of the previous match. In just the 16th minute, Roy Keane put them up 1-0 with a blast from outside the box, then Cole struck twice from close range (23', 37') to set the margin at 3-0 by the break.

Things only got worse for Ipswich in the second half, as Cole scored twice more (53', 65') around a pair of goals from Mark Hughes (54', 59'). Paul Ince added an eighth in the 72nd minute, then Cole struck again in the 88th, making him the first player to score five teams in a Premier League match (though the overall top-flight record remains 7, scored by Arsenal's Ted Drake in 1935). The 9-0 result is also the Premier League's record margin (though the overall top-flight record is 12, set by West Brom in 1892 and matched by Nottingham Forest in 1909).

Cole's tally has since been matched by Alan Shearer, Jermain Defoe, and Dimitar Berbatov, but has not been exceeded in a Premier League contest.