Manchester United's top 3 knockout matches on Boxing Day

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s second coming got to a resounding and uplifting start with a 5-1 thumping of Cardiff. The hero of Camp Nou will have his second home debut on a very special day of the calendar.

On this Boxing Day, United welcome Huddersfield who arrive on a 5-match losing streak and languishing in the relegation zone. David Wagner’s team will be dreading the resurgent Devils who will be champing at the bits to enthral the United faithful and snap out of the ‘Dwam of Mourinho’ into the ‘Dawn of Ole’.

He would be aware of the United’s intention to strike hard and strike first.

United will expect to gain some momentum after the victory in Wales and anything but a win will bring the tarp over the honeymoon period. Even the United manager will know that ‘one Solskjaer doesn't make an entire season’- even if it be the 'hOLE-day season.

Ole will be hoping that United can deliver an early knockout punch to the free-falling visitors or in pugilistic phraseology an iron fist inside a velvet glove. But notwithstanding history and fact, what is Christmas without some fisticuffs, eh!

What is so special about Boxing Day?

Boxing Day, unlike how it sounds, has nothing to do with Boxing or any sports for that matter, even though likes of football, cricket (Australia vs India!), racing etc. It has everything to do with Christmas though as well its spirit of giving and munificence.

The origins of the day chronicle an old tradition of giving Christmas boxes i.e. ones with gifts or treats – to labourers, helpers and service providers for their earnest work and devotion to duty.

Such patronage and regard in anachronistic for this day and age of individualism and rasterized existence, but it remains one of those lingering memories of a gentler holiday spirit or maybe even a ghost of the Christmases past.

The day offers a unique recipe for entertainment and to put it into a microcosm, the just look at the scoreboard for matches on the Boxing Day of 1963:

*A grand total of 66 goals and 7 hat tricks in 10 games.

** Reverse fixtures were played after 48 hours in which Manchester United beat Burnley 5-1 at Old Trafford. Ipswich and West Ham United also salvaged lost pride by managing 4-2 and 3-1 victories after being thrashed by nine and six goals (respectively) on Boxing Day.

For football in the UK and particularly in England, it offers a feast unrivalled in the world of football. When the rest of Europe is ensconced in the warm and fuzzy festivities of the holiday languor, the festive period provides an all action, star-studded and physically unforgiving fixture list.

It may be likened to a ‘Hell in a Cell’ match in the WWE; you are never the same after enduring one!

The teams who play on the Boxing Day will have two more matches within a period of seven days games (some play twice in 48 hours). The Premier League this year will see 18 teams playing on Boxing Day (Southampton vs West Ham is on the following day).

What is so special about Manchester United on Boxing Day?

For Manchester United, the day brings a rich tapestry of comebacks, last minute winners, own goals, unlikely heroes and a whole lot of success. United is the most successful side in terms of Boxing Day results.

United have won nearly 55 per cent of the games they've played on Boxing Day - a better record than any other club in England. They've played 94 times on December 26, winning 51 (19 in PL), drawing 16 (3 in PL) and losing 27 (2 in Premier PL).

With 190 (62 in PL) Boxing Day goals in total - more than any other team, United are sitting proudly atop the Boxing Day charts

Unfurling through the pages of history, here are three colossal hits to revisit:

#3 Hull 2-3 Manchester United, 2013

Chester (4' ), Smalling (19'), Rooney (26'),

Meyler (13' ), Chester (66', og), Valencia (red card 90')

Religiously continuing the United tradition of late goals, comebacks and drama, Boxing Day 2013 was no different. The first Boxing Day in the post – Fergie era saw David Moyes’ charges pegged to a 2-0 scoreline in the first 15 minutes away to newly-promoted Hull.

Steve Bruce’s side was given the lead by ex-United youngster James Chester inside opening 5 minutes and then David Meyler saw his deflected shot squirm past helpless De Gea.

In true United resurgence, the away team bounced back with a header by Smalling who headed in a Wayne Rooney's free-kick. It was followed by a thunderous 30-yard volley from Wayne Rooney himself, his 150th Premier League goal for the club (He would go on to get another 103!).

A 10-min blitz restored parity for United. United would go on to take the lead with hero-turned-villain, Chester heading into his own net under much duress from Rooney again. United kept the lead without hiccups save the final minutes when Antonio Valencia was given his marching orders.

This was a fifth consecutive win for David Moyes, a false renaissance before the final demise.

#2 Manchester United 4-3 Newcastle, 2012

Evans (25), Evra (58), - Perch (4), Evans (28 og), Cisse (68)

Van Persie (71), Hernández (90)

The final year of the Fergie era was festooned with comebacks (total of 29 points recovered after going behind) and the Boxing day brought its own gift to be unboxed.

Old Trafford was lit up with the theatrics, almost as phantasmagoric as the famed moniker of the stadium suggests. A breathless, helter-skelter and totally unpredictable (save the final result of course!) saw the Magpies open the scoring with the unlikeliest of scores, defender James Perch (this will be his only goal for the Magpies).

The lead was knocked off its perch (hint: Merseyside) as Evans replied with an equalizer. Feeling the Christmas spirit, Evans gifted the lead to Newcastle with an OGM (Own goal moment). Evra restored parity in the second half before Papis Cisse crashed in his the visitor’s third with the ex-United man Obertan notching an assist.

With Fergie's thundering from the dugout and the Stretford end baying for referee’s head (overlooked penalty claims), Michael Carrick floated a sumptuous cross in the dying embers of the match. It was gobbled up by diving Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez and the stadium disintegrated into a pandemonium. A blockbuster finish to an explosive night.

Manchester City lost to Sunderland and that Christmas miracle saw Sir Alex’s side open up a seven-point gap at the top of the Premier League table.

#1 Sheffield Wednesday 3 - Manchester United 3

Hirst (2), Bright (6), Sheridan (62) - McClair (80, 67), Cantona (84)

We go to the year when it all began, particularly for the Premier League love and Manchester United love affair. It was Boxing Day 1992 and an end-to-end barnstormer played at a breakneck speed.

The home side, Sheffield Wednesday, raced to a 3-0 lead with David Hirst opening the scoring. Hirst was Fergie’s transfer target for the previous year and a half but a £3 million offer was rejected by the Owls. United instead bought one Eric Cantona.

With thirty minutes left, in a characteristic Fergie-way, Brian McClair scored twice to write a palimpsest from which the United’s teams to come would take inspiration from. But it was new signing Eric who delivered the leveller in the 85th minute.

Fergie-time would become a feature in the years to come (ask Lothar Matthäus and Bayern Munich) but this unlikeliest of comeback draws provided the United faithful with the hymn-sheet to chant the fabled words of – United never dies! Never quits!

That day, at Hillsborough, United took the road never travelled before and chart an unprecedented chapter in the annals of English football.

The history would script another late comeback against Wednesday in April of that season. The comeback would be complete as Steve Bruce’s two Fergie-time headers would earn United a much-needed victory and ensure the end of a 26-year-old wait for the fallen giant of Manchester.