The highest Boxing Day goalscorers in Premier League history - ranked

The waistband is that bit tighter, scraps of wrapping paper are still peppered across the house and there is an overwhelming abundance of football on offer.

While the majority of Europe gives their players a hard-earned break, Boxing Day fixtures - and the myriad of matches stuffed either side - have long been a staple of the English footballing calendar, stretching well before the inception of the Premier League.

Some managers may spend the congested festive fixture list lamenting the insanity of it all but it's clearly popular among the fans - as shown by the thousands who brave the elements, armed with turkey sandwiches, to cheer their side on each year.

Here are the goalscorers who have best benefited from the Boxing Day fixtures.

10. Frank Lampard - 5

PL clubs on Boxing Day: West Ham, Chelsea, Man City

Halfway through his debut campaign as a Chelsea player, Frank Lampard hadn't quite established himself as the archetypal goalscoring midfielder he would end his career as.

In fact, Lampard was goalless in his first 16 Premier League games until finding the net either side of Christmas Day 2001. The rest is history.

9. Steven Gerrard - 5

PL clubs on Boxing Day: Liverpool

Not only does Steven Gerrard bring a prolific edge to a day many spend groggily stumbling from the sofa to the kitchen and back again, but the Liverpool icon can also boast a consistency when it comes to Boxing Day - only two players in the competition's history have featured in more matches on the 26th.

8. Andrew Cole - 5

PL clubs on Boxing Day: Newcastle, Man Utd, Blackburn, Fulham, Man City, Portsmouth

Andrew Cole was almost as prolific in front of goal as he was at moving clubs. No player has featured for more different Premier League sides on Boxing Day than the nomadic former England striker with six.

7. Dimitar Berbatov - 5

PL clubs on Boxing Day: Spurs, Man Utd, Fulham

Dimitar Berbatov's hat-trick for Manchester United against Wigan in 2011 may be his most goal-laden outing on Boxing Day, but the Bulgarian striker arguably went one better the following year.

After opening the scoring for Fulham against Southampton, Berbatov took off his shirt to reveal one of the more memorable undershirt messages, which read: "Keep calm and pass me the ball."

Seven words which succinctly summarise Berbatov's approach to the team sport didn't quite ring true that day though, as Southampton struck a late equaliser.

6. Jermain Defoe - 6

PL clubs on Boxing Day: West Ham, Spurs, Portsmouth, Bournemouth

It's fair to say Jermaine Defoe may have mixed feelings about a Boxing Day trip to Villa Park.

Having been sent off for Spurs against Aston Villa in 2010, Defoe returned two years later to net his sixth and final Boxing Day goal.

5. Thierry Henry - 7

PL clubs on Boxing Day: Arsenal

Thierry Henry has been in unplayable form for more games than most in the Premier League era, but Boxing Day 2000 against Leicester City was a particular highlight.

Not only did he score a hat-trick, but Henry laid on two assists in a thumping 6-1 win. No player has ever had more goal contributions, and no team has ever enjoyed a larger margin of victory on Boxing Day in the Premier League.

4. Alan Shearer - 8

PL clubs on Boxing Day: Blackburn, Newcastle

Across consecutive years in the mid-1990s, the Premier League had it's own Christmas-themed sequence of X-Files-esque occurrences.

On Boxing Day 1994 and 1995, Blackburn faced Manchester City. On each occasion, Rovers were the victors, each time by a two-goal margin and in both games Alan Shearer scored the opening goal.

Ok, maybe it's a bit of stretch to class these entirely feasible coincidences as paranormal phenomena, but there is no questioning that Shearer's goalscoring record any time of the year was otherworldly.

3. Robbie Keane - 8

PL clubs on Boxing Day: Coventry, Leeds, Spurs, Liverpool

Robbie Keane's first, and arguably most impressive, Boxing Day goal in the Premier League came in a surprising 3-2 victory for Coventry City over Arsenal back in 1999, when the fears of global pandemics were the strict property of conspiracy theorists.

Nevertheless, Gary McAllister opened the scoring that match and he remains the only player born on Christmas Day to have found the net on Boxing Day.

2. Harry Kane - 8

PL clubs on Boxing Day: Spurs

If August was once considered a fallow period for Harry Kane, by Christmas he is usually well and truly warmed up.

Impressively, Tottenham's talisman has scored in all five Premier League Boxing Day fixtures he's played in. Even in 2016/17, when Tottenham's match with Southampton was held back until 28 December, Kane still found the net.

1. Robbie Fowler - 9

PL clubs on Boxing Day: Liverpool, Leeds, Man City

While there probably aren't many outside the game that can offer too many sympathies to footballers who miss most of the Christmas festivities in preparation for the Boxing Day fixture, there must be a little more compassion for the players that have an away trip on the 26th.

However, Robbie Fowler never seemed to mind the travel. Seven of his nine Boxing Day goals came away from home, more than double the next highest tally for this particularly niche factoid.

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