Vitaly Janelt (15th) and Ivan Toney (54th) with his tenth goal of the season gave Spurs a 2-0 lead. The World Cup returnees Harry Kane (65th) and Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg (71st) gave coach Antonio Conte’s team a point. Kane also has a record-breaking ten league goals on Boxing Day, the most in the Premier League. Tottenham, without world champion Cristian Romero and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, are fourth with 30 points.
Newcastle United moved past champions Manchester City in second place with a 3-0 win at Leicester. One of the fathers of the victory was ex-Rapid striker Joelinton: the Brazilian won a penalty after 86 seconds, which Chris Wood (3rd) converted, and scored a goal himself in the 32nd minute with a header. Miguel Almirón (7th) also scored in the first half for the “Magpies”, who celebrated their sixth win in a row – although they played two games more than Manchester.
For Liverpool, Mohamed Salah (5th), Virgil van Dijk (37th) and the just 18-year-old Stefan Bajcetic (81st) entered the scorer list. In the second half, Aston Villa won the game and tried in vain to equalize after Olli Watkins (59th) scored. The sixth-placed “Reds” of coach Jürgen Klopp reduced the gap to the Champions League places to five points.
The term “Boxing Day” goes back to an old British tradition on December 26, when employees usually received a Christmas box from their employers. The first Boxing Day match day in the Premier League took place in 1966.