Perez: We both had a total ball
AYOZE PEREZ has revealed the real danger of having Jamie Vardy in the same side.
Even when you score a long-awaited hat-trick, there is a chance you could end up missing out on the match ball.
Luckily for the Spaniard, who had failed to find the net even once since his £30million move from Newcastle in the summer, the tendency in the modern game to use multiple balls came to the rescue.
It took Perez less than an hour to notch his second hat-trick against Southampton this year, having matched the feat at St James’ Park towards the end of last season.
But with the final kick, Vardy completed his own hat-trick from the spot, equalling the Premier League’s record win of 9-0 in the process.
Perez said: “After I got two, I was thinking about the hat-trick a lot to be honest.
“The guys told me I had to have it in my mind, so I tried to score.
“It was an unbelievable ball by Harvey Barnes for the third, but then our No.9 scored another hat-trick.
“So I thought we were going to share the ball, but in the end we’re having one each!”
The trip to Southampton was Perez’s 11th game for the Foxes and another goalscoring duck would have equalled his longest dry run since his first season in English football five years ago.
The 26-year-old admitted it had been playing on his mind.
“I’ve been thinking a while about getting my first goal,” he said.
“I knew, as soon as the first one came, goals will keep coming and in this case, it ended up in a hat-trick!
“So, it means a lot for me, I’m very happy, very proud of myself, but even more important: the team, what we’ve done out there.
“It was an unbelievable night! We showed big quality out there. We played very well, a great performance on an amazing night. We can’t be more happy!”