Boxing Day Football Preview

Stadiums up and down the country will be rocking on Thursday afternoon as excited fans make their way to watch their favourite teams on one of the best football days of the year, Boxing Day. Let’s take a closer look at some of the highlights!

There are eight matches scheduled to be played from the top flight with the final two being played on Friday. There is also a full set of fixtures from the lower divisions with some mouthwatering ties from further down the football pyramid. Scotland will also join in with a full round of fixtures in the SPL taking place too. 

The early kick off in England is Manchester City against Everton, a match that one would usually assume would be an easy three points for the home side. However, this season has been a horrendous one for the defending champions and Everton have performed quite well of late, being defensively very solid and managing draws against Arsenal and Chelsea. There are five matches scheduled for 4 PM starting with high-flying Bournemouth against struggling Crystal Palace, with the home side on a roll after their away win against Man Utd at the weekend. Chelsea are the form team in the league and are genuine title contenders no. They play against their local rivals Fulham hoping to collect three points. One of the more interesting matches in this time slot is Newcastle against Aston Villa. Only two points separate these teams in the table and both will be aiming for another top four finish this season having both managed to get into the elite of English football over the last two seasons. This is a hard match to call but should be a great watch. High-flying Nottingham Forest take on a struggling Tottenham side in a match where we can expect goals, and Southampton face West Ham in a clash between two teams in trouble. 

The late afternoon kick off is another chance for Ruben Amorim to put his mark on his United team when they travel to Wolves, who have also just changed their manager. This is the first home game for the new man in charge so it won’t be an easy game for Manchester United, who only have two wins in their last five league matches. The final match of the day is leaders Liverpool against Leicester and anything other than a comfortable home win here would be a surprise. Leicester suffered a poor home defeat to Wolves at the weekend whereas Liverpool managed to score six away at Tottenham, so everything points to an easy evening’s work for the league leaders. 

Friday’s matches are Brighton against Brentford and Arsenal at home to Ipswich, two matches where home wins are expected.

Manchester City vs Everton

It is a very confusing time for all those associated with Manchester City. The defending champions have appeared almost unbeatable for years now but they are suddenly extremely vulnerable. Their most recent loss came at the weekend at the hands of Aston Villa, following on from a defeat to their local rivals Man Utd. These latest results mean they are on a run of one win from their last twelve matches and they go into this match sat outside of the top six. They have been very poor defensively and their confidence has evaporated as they have problems at both ends of the pitch. Next up is an Everton side who have been a tough nut to crack of late and they will be desperately hoping to get back to winning ways against a team they haven’t lost to in their last 15 meetings.

Everton would not normally go to the Etihad Stadium with much confidence but given the recent form of their opponents as well as their own recent results, this season is somewhat different. They managed to stop both Arsenal and Chelsea scoring in their last two matches and three clean sheets in a row would be an excellent achievement. Overall they have five clean sheets from their last six league matches but they are still struggling to score, having only managed 14 league goals so far this season. The fact that Everton have new, ambitious, owners will mean that manager Sean Dyche will be under some pressure to turn some of those draws into wins soon.

Manchester City have won nine of the last ten meetings between these two with Everton only having a single 1-1 draw to show for their efforts over recent years. 

Newcastle vs Aston Villa

It has been a good couple of weeks for Newcastle who have started to make their way up the table following successive 4-0 wins as well as qualifying for the EFL Cup semi-finals. They will feel that they are capable of finishing in the European places at least, so this clash with another rival for a European place will be an interesting and important meeting. They have a good home record against Villa, not losing this fixture at St. James Park since 2005 and their last two league matches against Villa in the North East were 4-0 and 5-1 home wins. Bruno Guimarães is a man in form for Newcastle with three goal contributions in his last three matches. 

Aston Villa have had an up and down season so far as they try to balance the demands of playing in Europe with another successful season in the league, something Newcastle themselves struggled with last season. They have lost their last four away league matches and have been poor defensively, which makes it their worst away run since the 2015/16 season. Their fans will certainly go into this match with some festive cheer however following their win over Manchester City at the weekend and find themselves in the top six again.

Newcastle have four wins from the last ten meetings with the Midlands team managing three, making this a hard match to call. 

Wolves vs Manchester United

The late afternoon kick off from the Midlands sees Wolves taking on Manchester United, a battle between two of the league’s underperforming teams. New boss Vitor Pereira enjoyed an excellent start to life as manager when his team secured a convincing 3-0 away win over Leicester with the type of performance that fans and former manager Gary O’Neil will wonder why was missing over recent months. The win ended a four match losing streak and they will be hoping that a first home match in charge for the new man will be equally successful. They only have four points from their eight home league matches this season and have really struggled to stop other teams from scoring so the chance of back to back clean sheets seems somewhat remote. Matheus Cunha will once again be the man to watch for the home side, the attacker being their best player this season. 

Where to start with Manchester United? Fans will have been left exasperated by their latest home defeat on Sunday against Bournemouth. One never knows what to expect from this team of underperforming players. They have four wins and four losses in the last eight games and Ruben Amorim will surely need to stop chopping and changing his lineup and start to settle on his best eleven players soon. They don’t really have the excuse of too many injuries this season but so many players being out of form is a real worry for the Red Devils. This is the first time the giants will spend Christmas in the bottom half of the table since the 1989/90 season. Rasmus Højlund, along with Amad, have been two of the only bright sparks in recent weeks and since the former scored and assisted in this fixture last season he will surely be back in the starting lineup, ahead of misfiring Joshua Zirkzee. 

Historically this fixture has certainly favoured Man Utd, who have eight wins from the last ten meetings with Wolves only winning once, but given their unpredictability, it is hard to back them against anyone. 

PS: Odds might have changed since the writing and publication of this article.

Last updated: 23.12.24