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Jermaine Pennant is well-known for scoring a hat-trick on his Arsenal debut – and it appears, he did so with a raging hangover.
Pennant made the ultimate statement when he smashed home three goals against Southampton on his first Premier League start for the Gunners in 2003. It was an opportunity he had been longing for for a long time since coming through the north Londoners' academy system.
However, the former Liverpool forward’s debut came on one of the few days he was hoping to avoid – after a rather boozy night out. In fact, to ensure he was in a condition to possibly play for Arsenal, his own team-mates even locked him in his apartment the night before.
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“Some of the boys were going out who weren’t in the squad and were being rested, and I wanted to come. I didn’t expect that I’d be playing, I thought I’d be on the bench,” he said exclusively to Daily Star Sport while speaking on behalf of NewBettingSites.uk. “When I said this they were angry saying ‘No, you’re still in the squad’ but I said I’d be home by 12'.
"They were raging so they locked me in my apartment somehow. I managed to escape, got a taxi and managed to get out. They just looked at me with evils and didn’t talk to me for the first hour, saying I was being stupid. But I said 'look, I’ll be here for a couple of hours then I’ll be home before midnight'.
“I stayed partying away, we got a bit more relaxed and looser throughout the night. I had one drink, the next minute it was three then five and then by that time I’d totally forgotten about the game and so had the boys. We ended up leaving and getting a cab back about 5am, back home about 6am.
What other players put in a man-of-the-match display the day after a boozy night out? Let us know in the comments-section below
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“I had to meet up at 11am at the Four Seasons hotel for the pre-match meal. Arsene Wenger wrote out the team on the whiteboard and I saw my name was on the right hand side. I thought it was Parlour… it definitely said Pennant. I thought ‘Oh my god’, I expected to be on the bench and would never come on.
"Patrick Viera was sitting next to me and he turned to me, in his thick accent, and said ‘Jermaine, this is your time’. I thought to myself, ‘it is not, it is not my time’. Throughout the day I had to get my head around that I was starting, what was I going to do. I was avoiding the manager as he was giving me instructions just in case he could tell that I was a bit rough for wear and I just focused on how was I going to get through 20 minutes let alone more.
"I was thinking ‘shall I pretend my hamstring’s gone after 10 mins?’ The game kicks off, still thinking ‘oh my god’. But I battled through, scored a goal and thought ‘fantastic, I can come off at any time now’. I ended up scoring another and then I just kept going, scored a hat-trick and ended up getting the match ball and nobody ever knew!”
Pennant did not score another goal for the Gunners during the rest of his short spell with the senior team. Some may even interpret his goal-laden day as a positive, boozy omen. However, despite the fact he collected the match ball, he's not advising any other aspiring players to follow his lead.
“My friends who were out with me were texting each other saying ‘have you seen this'," he laughed. "But it’s something I wouldn’t do again and I wouldn’t advise doing to any of these youngsters!”
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