The Premier League marks its return from a winter hiatus with a healthy set of fixtures on every English football fan’s favourite day on the calendar.
Festive football has been entrenched in British culture for decades. While the rest of Europe put their feet up and wait for the new year to roll around, the Premier League ploughs right through the bleak mid-winter and offers a jam-packed schedule for football lovers.
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However, it wasn’t until the beginning of the 21st century that a full Boxing Day schedule was introduced to the calendar. Throughout the 90s, games were often played on Christmas with only the odd fixture falling the day after. Since 2000, though, Boxing Day has been where it’s at in regards to Premier League football.
Here are the highest-scoring Boxing Days in Premier League history.
Our list begins with the 20-goal haul of 2010 as seven games were played on Boxing Day.
There were little by way of classics, but every contest featured at least two goals while just three of the 14 teams failed to get on the scoresheet.
2016 was Pep Guardiola’s first experience of Boxing Day football as Manchester City boss and he oversaw a 3-0 victory over Hull City in the evening kick-off.
City’s three strikes took the day’s tally up to 21 with 2016’s contests averaging 2.625 goals each.
2004 and 2006 share eighth spot with 22 Boxing Day goals.
2004 was saved by Liverpool’s 5-0 thumping of West Brom and Blackburn’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle as nine of 20 teams failed to score. It wasn’t all that much better two years later, to be honest, but there was one less game.
Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Reading at the start of the day was the standout encounter.
A bad day to be a Gooner or a Red Devil.
Stoke City stunned Manchester United 2-0 in the early kick-off before Southampton rounded off a fairly mediocre day of football by battering Arsenal 4-0 at St. Mary’s.
Anyone remember Cuco Martina’s piledriver from distance? Whatever…
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