For some, Boxing Day is the perfect time to get out of the house, face the biting cold, immense crowds and filled parking lots to hunt a bargain. Others, like your humble Impact Media representative, prefer to shop the Montreal Impact’s online boutique exceptional deals from their living room, in their pajamas, and watch the English Premier League marathon of games while eating a leftover-turkey-cranberry-sauce-pickles-cheese-mayo sandwich. Follow Santa Claus who, after an intense 24 hours of work, takes his sleigh to the British Isles the day after Christmas for this purely English tradition: here is your foot culture, Boxing Day special.
All fixtures on December 26, 1963
Did defenders have too much eggnog on the evening of the 25th? The ten games scheduled for Boxing Day 1963 yielded 66 goals. That’s an average of…
6.6 goals per game. We are ready to bet some coaches finished the day looking for a deal on a toupet, after having pulled their hair because of their team’s disastrous defensive performances.
Grimsby Town 7-3 Manchester United
English Second Division, 1933
Unfortunately, we could not find any video archive from this spectacular game predating Manchester United’s accession to the English, European and world elite. This 1933 game is still worthy of a mention. At the heart of the Red Devils’ worst ever season, finishing 20th and only one point away from relegation, this third match in four days – after a 1-1 draw against Millwall on December 23 and a 3-1 loss to Grimsby Town the day before – becomes a goal fest. A nice Holiday gift for football fans in England, right in the middle of the Great Depression.
Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 Sheffield United
English Third Division, 1979
While in Quebec, we have the Good Friday Massacre, in Sheffield, they have the Boxing Day Massacre. Wednesday faces United in front of almost 50,000 people stacked in Hillsborough and tempers were flaring. As soon as the players entered the tunnel, insults were blaring. But on the pitch, it will be far from a close contest: United, top of the league, fall flat and lose 4-0 against neighbours Wednesday.
Chelsea 4-4 Aston Villa
Premier League, 2007
A real rollercoaster of a game. The visitors take a two-goal lead quickly, notably thanks to Petr Čech’s belated Christmas gift. Chelsea will come back in the game through a Shevchenko brace, whose second goal was a rocket of a shot. The Blues will eventually take the lead, twice, but the Villans equalize twice. Nigel Reo-Coker’s former team will escape Stamford Bridge with a point in this Christmassy spirit: three red cards were given in the game.
Manchester United 4-3 Newcastle United
Premier League, 2011
On the way to their 20th league title, the Red Devils needed a goal in Fergie Time™ to go through a stubborn Newcastle United, now dwelling in the Championship, England’s second division.
The full 2017 Boxing Day fixture list
7:30am
Tottenham v Southampton
10am
Bournemouth v West Ham
Chelsea v Brighton & Hove Albion
Hudersfield Town v Stoke City
Manchester United v Burnley
Watford v Leicester City
West Bromwich Albion v Everton
12:30pm
Liverpool v Swansea
