The annual St. Stephen's Day-Boxing Day question crops up for Irish football fans again. On the one hand St. Stephen's Day is what it's known as in this country. On the other hand, Boxing Day is less of a mouthful to say and it will become lodged in your brain when you watch enough English football. Realising that your inflection has been affected by Sky Sports News can be extremely unsettling. We've all known Irish people who've accidentally slipped into saying Mark Kin-SELLA - pronouncing it like that with the emphasis on the second syllable.
Over on our Balls.ie Fantasy Football podcast Christmas special (listen here), Mikey Traynor has done some vital research on the question of who fares best on Saint Boxing Day. Well, since 1992 at least.
You may not be surprised to learn that Manchester United have the finest record on the 26th - in marked contrast to their notably poor record on New Year's Day. They have won a whopping 17 out of 20 games on that day, with two draws and a solitary loss. We did speculate that this was down to the issue of 3.00 kick-offs and the fact United usually face turkeys at that time. Sky wouldn't have it any other way.
Arsenal come in second, albeit well behind, with an impressive 11 wins.
And in third come... Coventry City.
Richard Keys beloved Coventry boys won five out of their eight Premier League games played on that day.
While Norwich have failed to win any of their five Saint Boxing Day games, the poorest record on the 26th goes to Aston Villa, who have won a mere three games out of nineteen played on that date. Desperate stuff.
