The Premier League’s greatest Boxing Day games

Fewer games, fewer hangovers, fewer mid-afternoon epics unfolding while half the country argues about batteries.

So in the absence of a proper festive fixture pile-up this year, this is a small act of seasonal compensation: a look back at five of the very best Boxing Day games in Premier League history, when chaos, goals and mild absurdity were very much part of the deal.

Sheffield Wednesday 3-3 Manchester United (1992)

Manchester United have featured in numerous memorable Premier League Boxing Day encounters, and the very first of those matches proved no exception. Back in 1992, Sir Alex Ferguson led his side to Hillsborough to take on Sheffield Wednesday.

United would go on to lift the inaugural Premier League title that season, underlining their consistency across the campaign. Few could have predicted, then, the dramatic opening that unfolded as Wednesday surged into a two-goal advantage within six minutes, with David Hirst and Mark Bright both finding the net.

The hosts carried that lead into half-time and extended it shortly after the hour when John Sheridan made it 3-0. Facing a seemingly impossible task, United mounted a stirring comeback. Brian McClair struck twice to reduce the deficit before Eric Cantona, in his debut season at Old Trafford, completed the turnaround with an 84th-minute equaliser to cap a thrilling contest.

Arsenal 6-1 Leicester City (2000)

Boxing Day 2000 remains one of the purest expressions of peak Arsene Wenger Arsenal. Thierry Henry scored a hat-trick that afternoon, including a goal that saw him control the ball on the turn and finish before Leicester defenders had processed what had happened.

Dennis Bergkamp was outrageous, Robert Pires elegant, and Arsenal were 4-0 up inside 25 minutes. It was festive football as domination, a reminder that Christmas leftovers taste better when served with Henry at full throttle.

Chelsea 4-4 Aston Villa (2007)

If Boxing Day is about excess, then Chelsea and Aston Villa delivered accordingly in 2007. This was football as a sugar rush. Villa raced into a 2-0 lead, Chelsea hit back, Villa went ahead again, Chelsea equalised again, and everyone briefly forgot about defensive structure.

Shaun Maloney, Andriy Shevchenko and Salomon Kalou all scored, Petr Cech had an afternoon he’d rather forget, and Stamford Bridge was treated to one of the most breathless festive games of the Abramovich era.

 

Manchester United 4-3 Newcastle United (2012)

Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United were never more entertaining than when they appeared on the brink of collapse and then refused to do so. Newcastle led twice at Old Trafford on Boxing Day 2012 and were level late on, only for Javier Hernandez to pop up in the 90th minute with the winner.

It was frantic, error-strewn and gloriously old-school, the kind of match that made a mockery of tactical diagrams and felt perfectly timed for the Christmas television audience.

Liverpool 4-0 Leicester City (2019)

By Boxing Day 2019, Liverpool’s title push felt less like a charge and more like an inevitability. Leicester arrived as the closest challengers and left dismantled.

Roberto Firmino scored twice, James Milner converted a penalty and Trent Alexander-Arnold was absurdly good. Liverpool went 13 points clear and effectively ended the title race before the turkey was finished. It wasn’t chaotic, but it was emphatic – and sometimes Boxing Day brilliance comes in the form of total authority.

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