Will Prem Boxing Day specials leave the bookies on the canvas?

While most of Britain will sleep soundly on Christmas Day after one too many mince pies, the bookies could be set for a restless night.

That’s because Boxing Day of 2014 saw a run of Premier League results which ended with every favourite winning, and the bookies shelling out £10m to punters.

So, will it be another victory for our customers today? If our Boxing Day specials come in, there could certainly be joy in living rooms across the land – and some glum faces at Ladbrokes HQ.

Goalscoring foursome to do the damage

The likes of Sergio Aguero and Diego Costa may be out injured, but we’re still all-but-certain to see a fair whack of goalscoring action. Indeed, we’ve only seen one 0-0 draw in the last 30 Boxing Day games, dating back to 2013.

It’s 8/15 that we see every game produce a goal this time out, and you can expect to see the likes of Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez and Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic among the goals – with both of their sides facing straightforward home games.

And talking of those two, there’s 18/1 on offer for Ibrahimovic, Sanchez, Alvaro Negredo and Kevin De Bruyne all to find the net on December 26, with the pair having already chalked up 30 goals combined in this Prem campaign. If they’re on fire, the bookies will be terrified.

The 140/1 shot…that’s already happened

There’s always one team that lets you down, isn’t there?

Well, maybe not on Boxing Day. After all, every Premier League favourite won on December 26 a couple of years back, to give the bookies a nightmare after Christmas. So…could it happen again?

Manchester City head to a Hull City side they’ve beaten in four of the last five meetings, Arsenal look for a sixth successive home triumph against West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City host an Everton side they beat in both meetings in 2015-16.

So, can they – and the other favourites – do the job at 140/1? They say lightning never strikes twice. We shall see…

25 is the magic number

You need only go back to 2014 to find the last time Boxing Day produced 25 or more goals. Admittedly, there were 10 games that day instead of the eight this time around, but at 11/8 this is already proving a popular selection…with good reason.

Less than a fortnight ago, on December 10, we saw 29 goals in the top-flight, and there were only six matches taking place. Indeed, 11 of the 20 teams who played over that weekend scored two or more goals.

So, with the likes of Man United and Arsenal likely to score big against their visitors, and the league’s leakiest defence – in Swansea City – in action, we could well see a sackful of goals this Christmas.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing