A match on Boxing Day is usually as traditional as Christmas pudding or pulling crackers, but that hasn't been the case for us in recent seasons.
Fixtures against Ipswich Town and West Ham United were scheduled later than the usual Boxing Day slot, and with our game against Brighton currently pencilled in for December 27, 2025, Opta have delved into the record books and believes playing 24 hours after Boxing Day might be a good omen for us.
Our first Boxing Day game in the Premier League was against the Tractor Boys in 1992 and resulted in a 0-0 draw, but since then we’ve been pretty successful on December 26, winning 16 of our 25 fixtures on that particular day.
Incredibly, we’ve only lost twice in the competition in that time - back in 1999 at Coventry City and in 2015 at Southampton. We are unbeaten in our last six, including Mikel Arteta’s managerial debut at Bournemouth in 2019, and subsequent wins against Chelsea, Norwich City and West Ham United in 2022 - our last Boxing Day battle.
That record puts us third in the all-time Boxing Day table, despite playing less games than the majority of the other ever-presents in the division’s history:
| P | W | D | L | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Man United | 28 | 22 | 4 | 2 | 70 |
| Liverpool | 26 | 17 | 5 | 4 | 56 |
| Arsenal | 25 | 16 | 7 | 2 | 55 |
| Tottenham | 26 | 15 | 8 | 3 | 53 |
| Chelsea | 28 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 48 |
| Everton | 28 | 11 | 7 | 10 | 40 |
Due to the traditional nature of the Christmas calendar, fixtures the day after Boxing Day have been few and far between, and in fact our encounter with Ipswich in 2024 was just the fifth time we have taken to the field for a Premier League game on that day. We are unbeaten in those games, with four impressive victories coming in our five such matches.
On December 27, 1993, we trashed Swindon Town 4-0 with Kevin Campbell helping himself to a hat-trick, and it would be 16 years until we played on that date again but it was a similar fate for Aston Villa as they were beaten 3-0, with Cesc Fabregas bagging a brace.
A year later we were back in action two days after Christmas again, after being handed a London derby against Chelsea but once again, we prevailed thanks to a 3-1 scoreline with the Spaniard on target again alongside Alex Song and Theo Walcott. The trend continued in 2011 as Wolves came to Emirates Stadium, but our 100% record ended after Steven Flecther cancelled out an early Gervinho goal.
We got back to winning ways on that day in 2024/25, thanks to Kai Havertz's first-half goal, edging out Ipswich.
All that means that we have a 75% win ratio on December 27, as opposed to a not-to-be-sniffed-at 64% the day before. However, when you add those results to our Boxing Day performance, only Manchester United fans have enjoyed more festive cheer than our Gooners:
| P | W | D | L | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Man United | 33 | 25 | 5 | 3 | 80 |
| Arsenal | 30 | 20 | 8 | 2 | 68 |
| Liverpool | 29 | 19 | 6 | 4 | 63 |
| Tottenham | 32 | 16 | 10 | 6 | 58 |
| Chelsea | 33 | 15 | 9 | 9 | 54 |
With a small sample size of Premier League fixtures to investigate, we also asked Opta to assess our entire Football League history to find out if we have a preference for playing on December 26 or 27 - and the margins couldn't be any closer.
Our victory over Ipswich Town last season means that December 27 now has a narrow over Boxing Day, with a 46.2% win record on December 27 compared to 44.8%
| Dec 26 | Dec 27 | |
|---|---|---|
| Games | 87 | 39 |
| Won | 39 | 18 |
| Drawn | 20 | 13 |
| Lost | 28 | 8 |
| Win % | 44.8 | 46.2 |
We have been defeated just eight times in our history on December 27, with our last loss on that day coming back in 1966 at Southampton. Fixtures in that timeframe include a 2-0 north London derby win against Tottenham in 1982, and a 1-1 draw with Ipswich two years earlier - a fixture played just 24 hours after we clinched a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace!