With football fans enjoying a little extra time at home with family and down the pub with friends to celebrate the time of year with some Christmas cheer, it’s a great time to pay a little extra attention to the biggest and best football division in the world.

December 26th is one of the busiest days of the calendar year for football for Premier League action, with eight games to look forward to. The other two, Brighton vs Brentford and Arsenal vs Ipswich will follow on December 27th. Here we preview all eight St Stephen’s Day matches along with some of the best odds around.

Why St Stephen’s Day Premier League Matches Matter

The round of matches on December 26th/27th will signify the league having reached the halfway point of the season. Who is leading the way at the summit at Christmas, is typically the outright favourite to go all the way and secure the Premier League crown.

But that’s not the way things have turned out in the last few seasons. Manchester City have won six of the last seven Premier League titles, but only in two of those were the top team at Christmas, with Liverpool and Arsenal both falling foul of fantastic comebacks by City.

Top at Christmas – Title Winners

After last weekend’s results, Liverpool will be top at Christmas regardless of what happens on Boxing Day, and the Reds are the outright favourites in Premier League odds to win the title.

Where To Watch Boxing Day Football

The St Stephen’s Day action is a very special day with so many games going on, and all the December 26th and 27th matches are being broadcast by Amazon, available free to all Prime account holders.

Man City vs Everton – 12:30 pm

With Manchester City’s house of cards tumbling after such a strong start to the season, Pep Guardiola’s men will be hoping to deliver home fans a bit of Christmas cheer on December 26th. Surprisingly, the Citizens have lost two of their last three home games in the league, going down against Tottenham and Manchester United.

After another defeat on the weekend at Aston Villa, City’s sixth in their last eight EPL matches, it’s clear that they are nowhere near their best, but are still the 2/7 odds-on favourites to beat Everton on Boxing Day.

Everton’s away form has been miserable with just a W1 D3 L4 record posted on their travels all season, scoring just five goals away from Goodison. Battling 0–0 draws against Arsenal and Chelsea in December showed that they fight them, but do they have the scoring threat to breach City’s out-of-form defence?

Head-to-Head: Home and away, the Citizens have won the last three in a row against the Toffees and are unbeaten against them in the league since a 4-0 drubbing at Goodison Park in 2017. They have taken a W4 D1 record in their last five at home against the Toffees.

Prediction: Man City 1 Goal Winning Margin

Bournemouth vs Crystal Palace – 3:00 pm

Bournemouth find themselves in the top six heading into Boxing Day. Their home form has been good at W4 D2 L2 and their positive, energetic style of play has been serving them well. The Cherries, who are Even Money match favourites, have conceded at under a goal per game at home this season, which should put them in the frame for three points against Palace.

Palace have had their struggles, being one of the lowest-scoring teams in the topflight. A good unbeaten stretch of form in December was snapped last weekend, leaving them just four points from the drop zone. Responding to that during this busy period away from home isn’t going to be easy and the Eagles are 3/1 for the win.

Head-to-Head: Each of the last six league meetings between the two have ended under 2.5 goals, with both teams failing to score. Palace took a W4 L2 record against the Cherries in the sequence but lost both games against them last season.

Prediction: Bournemouth To Win

Chelsea vs Fulham – 3:00 pm

Chelsea have emerged as potentially the biggest challengers to Liverpool’s title ambitions. Thanks to their giant squad helping keep legs fresh, the Blues have been very strong at home and continue to carve out plenty of chances in front of goal, so there could be three points in this for them.

Chelsea are W4 D3 L1 at home in the league this season, but their Boxing Day London derby against their closest neighbours Fulham isn’t the easiest of games. The Cottagers have been playing some brilliant stuff, highlighted by draws against Arsenal and Liverpool.

But they have only won twice on the road, so can they defy underdog odds of 11/2 to topple the Blues who are 1/2 odds-on match favourites?

Head-to-Head: Chelsea are W3 D1 in their last four home matches against Fulham, all without conceding a goal. Fulham have only won one game against their neighbours since 2006 in all competitions.

Prediction: Chelsea To Win & Over 3.5 Goals

Newcastle vs Aston Villa – 3:00 pm

The Magpies haven’t quite had the season they were expecting. They would have liked to have been closer to the top four than hovering just inside the top eight in mid-December. But they still are capable of high-quality performances and have won half of their home games in this campaign and are 10/11 favourites in the match outright.

The biggest struggles for the Villains this season have come against teams inside the top four, but they have handled themselves well elsewhere. They’ll have their confidence up after beating Man City on the weekend at Villa Park. Still, this looks like a competitive and tightly contested match between two evenly matched squads, with Villa 11/4 against for the road win.

Head-to-Head: Newcastle had the upper hand over the Villains last season, winning both matches. The Magpies have won four of the last five between the two clubs, and both teams have scored in just four of the last six meetings.

Prediction: Draw

Nottingham Forest vs Tottenham – 3:00 pm

Tottenham have been one of the highest-scoring teams in the topflight this season, but their offensive mindset has caused them plenty of problems at the back. Spurs remain inconsistent and that could make this one of the most entertaining games of Boxing Day. Tottenham are 7/4 underdogs to win this trip to Nottingham Forest after suffering a 6-3 home loss against Liverpool on the weekend.

Forest go into Boxing Day sitting in fourth place, bolstered by great results like a win at Liverpool and a draw at Chelsea. They are on a three-match winning streak, and with their good home record are 11/8 for the win. Nottingham Forest have conceded under a goal per game at the City Ground and they could cause Spurs plenty of problems in this one.

Head-to-Head: Spurs have won their last four Premier League matches against Forest by a two-goal margin, but they did lose an EFL Cup game at the City Ground in 2022. Given that Forest are riding higher than Spurs in the league, coupled with Tottenham’s defensive woes, the home side will fancy their chances.

Prediction: Nottingham Forest To Win

Southampton vs West Ham – 3:00 pm

The Saints have had a miserable time of things back up in the topflight and moved to sack Russell Martin in mid-December with a relative unknown in Ivan Juric coming in to take over for his first stint of managerial life in England.

Juric got them a point in a 0-0 at Fulham on the weekend, but the Saints badly need to end the year on a high by landing three points. But that looks tough with a very limited attack, and they are 23/10 home underdogs against the Hammers.

West Ham haven’t been particularly convincing this season either but will be confident of winning away at the bottom side from a quote of 21/20. West Ham have only won one of their last seven away games, however, so securing that win at St Marys could be hard work.

Head-to-Head: Just one of the last ten meetings between Southampton and West Ham (either venue) has produced an away win. The last four Premier League meetings have been evenly split at one win each and two draws.

Prediction: Draw

Wolves vs Man Utd – 5:30 pm

Ruben Amorim has a big rebuilding job on his hands at Old Trafford. Manchester United are the 10/11 match favourites to pick up three points from this meeting with Wolves at Molineux on Boxing Day after a heavy home loss against Bournemouth on the weekend.

It’s been three losses in their last four league games now. The Red Devils hold a W2 D3 L3 away record this season, winning just one of four away games played at teams in the bottom half of the table.

Wolves are stuck in the relegation zone and made a change at the top by sacking Gary O’Neill in mid-December for Vitor Pereira, who guided his new club to a thumping 3-0 win over Leicester last weekend.

Wolves have been one of the higher-scoring teams in the bottom half of the table, but defensively have been a disaster. Until that’s fixed, they will remain vulnerable and are 15/4 underdogs.

Head-to-Head: Manchester United are on a four-match winning streak against Wolves in the Premier League, losing just one of their last ten against them. Of the last twelve meetings in all competitions, only two have gone over 2.5 goals, so this may be a low-scoring affair.

Prediction: Man Utd 1 Goal Winning Margin

Liverpool vs Leicester – 8:00 pm

Title favourites Liverpool are one of the heaviest home favourites of the weekend at 1/8 as they entertain Leicester at Anfield. The Reds keep finding ways to win, even when not playing at their best. At Anfield, the Reds have earned a W6 D1 L1 record, and the visiting Foxes are massive 20/1 underdogs.

Leicester is still in a battle to put daylight between themselves and the drop zone. Their away form isn’t helping as they have fallen to a W1 D2 L5 record away from the King Power, the only win coming against bottom-side Southampton. The Foxes have conceded an average of 2.75 goals per away game as well.

Head-to-Head: Liverpool have won their last four in a row against Leicester in all competitions. The Reds have won their last four Premier League home games against them, scoring at least two goals in each of those wins. Both teams have scored in just one of the last four league meetings.

Prediction: Liverpool to win to nil

Boxing Day Sporting Treats

St Stephen’s Day isn’t just about Premier League football. There is plenty of other top sporting action to catch on the day too, including the King George VI Chase (Grade 1) from Kempton, the Leopardstown Christmas Festival, action from the United Rugby Championship and the Darts World Championship.

But it’s the Premier League fixtures that take centre stage, with most other sports stepping back into action on December 27th. So, it is a good time to put some focus into analysing the Premier League betting markets over the Christmas break.

With more than 100 pre-match options available for all Premier League matches, plus live betting and cash-out markets, check out Tonybet for the latest Boxing Day football betting odds.