Chopra in select company

Last updated : 21 August 2009 By John Heyda
In fact, Chopra is only the fifth City player to score in each of the first three league games. Here are the others who have accomplished the feat:

* Stan Cribbs, in the first three games of the 1932/33 league campaign. Cribbs would go on to net 11 goals for the season.

* Jimmy Collins, in the first three of the abandoned 1939/40 campaign. As these were the only three games played that year before the start of World War II called a halt to proceedings, you could argue that Collins doesn't belong on this list and that only four have turned the trick.

* Graham Moore, in the first three of the 1959/60 season. Moore would wind up with 13 for the year.

* Nathan Blake, in the first three of the 1993/94 season. He'd finish with 14.

In netting six goals so far, Michael Chopra matches the club record for most goals in the first three league games. In 1928/29, Hugh Ferguson scored six in the first three. Five of them came in the second game of the season, a 7-0 rout of Burnley in the home opener. Only a handful of other Bluebirds have netted as many as four in the first three league games.

* Jimmy Collins had four in the first three games of the 1937/38 season, including a hat trick in the second game. Collins would finish with 23 goals.

* Jimmy Collins had four in the first three of the 1939/40 abandoned campaign as well.

* Wilf Grant had four in the 1951/52 season's first three. Grant would wind up with an impressive 26 goals in league play.

* Nathan Blake had four in the first three in 1993/94.

In short, Michael Chopra is the first City player in club history to score six times in the first three league games while netting at least one in each of the three.

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