The greatest Boxing Day games in Premier League history

Did you know that you can stream every single game of the Premier League live on Showmax Pro Mobile, on the go, wherever you are, courtesy of SuperSport? And that goes for all five games on 26 December, too, known as Boxing Day in the UK.

2000 – Arsenal 6-1 Leicester

In a day that’s seen as a celebration of football for all fans, this was an Arsenal performance that took one’s breath away no matter who you support.

Thierry Henry in particular was as dominant as he was mesmerising. Not only did he pick up a hat-trick (his first of eight in the Premier League), he also contributed two assists.

Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal will always be associated with their revolutionary and beautiful style of football, which all came together so spectacularly on that day at Highbury.

2007: Chelsea 4-4 Aston Villa 

Boxing Day has earned a reputation of being an unpredictable, high-scoring day and this topsy-turvy game at Stamford Bridge was the perfect example of what fans have come to expect.

The game had eight goals, two penalties and three red cards. That’s more than enough to snap anybody out a post-Christmas malaise.

At one point, Aston Villa had a two-goal but after a frantic second half, it was 3-3 with two minutes left on the clock. Michael Ballack then thought he scored the winner, only for Gareth Barry to salvage a point in stoppage time.

2008: Manchester City 5-1 Hull 

This was in the days before Manchester City were title winners, before the huge influx of world class players and before the reign of Pep Guardiola.

This game won’t be remembered for a dominant City display, but it will always be remembered what happened at half-time when they were 4-0 up.

The Hull players would have expected an angry team talk from their manager Phil Brown. What they didn’t expect was that they would end up having that half-time meeting on the field.

The players were made to sit down on the pitch, culprits had to endure theatrical finger-wagging from their boss and a piece of Premier League folklore had been created.

2012: Manchester United 4-3 Newcastle

In what was Sir Alex Ferguson’s last season, Manchester United’s Boxing Day fixture was a prime example of the never-say-die spirit that the Scot’s teams became famous for in a dramatic win.

Incredibly, Newcastle took the lead on three different occasions but still ended up on the losing side.

With United 3-2 down, Robin van Persie stepped up for one of his 26 goals of the season. Then in the last minute of play, Chicharito stepped up to score the winner that sparked a huge festive party for the fans at Old Trafford. 

2013: Manchester City 2-1 Liverpool

Liverpool seized the advantage when Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring. The home side fought back impressively though, with goals from Vincent Kompany and Alvaro Negredo.

In terms of impact on a title race, this has to go down as one of the most significant Boxing Day games ever as Manchester City ended up winning the title two points ahead of Liverpool.

Drama is always a guarantee when it comes to Premier League football, but Boxing Day has a knack of dialling it up a notch. With all five games live on Showmax Pro Mobile this year, there’s no excuse for you to miss out on any of it.

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Showmax Pro was phased out on 30 November 2023, but Showmax Pro Mobile will continue to be available until the relaunch of Showmax. Find out more »

Great news! Showmax Premier League will then launch in February 2024. Powered by SuperSport and made for mobile users, Showmax Premier League Mobile is the first standalone Premier League mobile streaming service ever to launch in Africa and will take every single match of the world’s most popular football league to every corner of sub-Saharan Africa. Find out more »