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Gary Lineker BBC SportGetty

Oh dear, Gary Lineker! Match Of The Day host continues long goodbye from BBC with comical footballing rendition of 12 Days Of Christmas

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Article continues below

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  • Lineker sings 12 Days of Christmas
  • Lineker to leave Match of the Day at end of season
  • Arsenal beat Palace, Villa beat City and Isak hat-trick pick of Saturday's action
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  • WHAT HAPPENED?

    After 25 years in the hot-seat, Lineker is hosting Match of the Day for his final season after it was announced he would leave at the end of the current campaign. The former England striker opened the latest show with a footballing version of the Christmas jingle and introduced Alan Shearer and Ashley Williams alongside him. The show covered all of the Premier League games on Saturday including Arsenal's rout of Palace, Aston Villa's victory over Manchester City and Alexander Isak's hat-trick at Ipswich.

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  • WHAT LINEKER SAID

    In his version of the song, Lineker started: "Five games are coming, four... no that will do."

    Before continuing, at the pundits' shared expense: "Two total divs and Shearer and Williams are in the studio."

  • DID YOU KNOW?

    Lineker will be replaced by a three-person team of Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan who will rotate hosting duties of Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2. Cates will move from her role at Sky Sports to join the BBC at the end of the season and Chapman, who already regularly hosts the show on Sunday, will become a more regular face on Saturday nights.

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    WHAT NEXT FOR LINEKER?

    Few will expect Lineker to pursue a singing career after his attempted jingle and it is likely he will remain in football. He has already signed up to manage a side in Baller League UK and his podcast with Shearer and Micah Richards continues to dominate podcasting charts.