While everyone else is resting, the English will play football again this year. The second day of Christmas is the time for Boxing day from the Premier League all the way down to the lower leagues. Great excitement awaits us again this year, full stadiums and lots of great football.
Who will get the best gift for Boxing Day?
What is Boxing Day?
Boxing day or the Day of Gifts is celebrated on the Feast of St. Stephen on December 26 in all Commonwealth countries. The holiday is celebrated with a number of traditional customs, and for sports fans, the best known is that of playing football, although cricket and rugby are also played on that day, as well as all those sports popular in the countries that once made up the British Empire.
The Premier League on Boxing Day presents a special atmosphere, and the strongest leagues in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will also be active on that day. The FA leaders try to create an attractive Premiership and lower league schedule year after year, and the opponents are chosen so that they are not too geographically distant so that fans do not have to travel long distances during the festive period. Of course, they are never the biggest derbies, but there are a number of smaller local matches that make the whole tradition even more interesting.
Boxing day is opened by Tottenham and Brighton
Tottenham and Brighton open the round on Boxing Day in the early afternoon slot from 1:30 p.m. Jose Mourinho’s team will be looking for a win, especially after last weekend’s 2:0 defeat at this same stadium against Chelsea. Spurs are wounded and now have to look for some winning streak as they sit in an unsatisfactory seventh place. In this match, they will be without Son, who has been sent off, and Cristian Eriksen will probably take his place in the team. Brighton are not in any better position either as they are currently 13th in the table. Three games without a win, but Mourinho must be careful as the Seagulls from the south of England beat Arsenal at the Emirates four rounds ago. The coefficient on Spurs is around 1.50.
Rich program from 16:00, debut of two coaches
As many as six games will be played starting at 4 p.m., and this year we are lucky that two coaches who sat on the bench of two giants will make their debut on Boxing Day. Arsenal are desperate this year and are currently in 11th position in the league table. Because of this, manager Unai Emery was fired, and Freddie Ljungberg replaced him in the previous few games. On Boxing day, Arsenal will visit Borunemouth, which is in 14th place, and for the first time, new coach Mikel Arteta, a former player of Everton and Arsenal, and until a few days ago the first assistant of Pep Guardiola at City, will be on the bench of Topnik. It would be good for Arteta to start with a win in his new job, and the b-Bets bookmaker has odds of 1.99 for the duo.
The situation is similar in Everton, which is currently in 15th position beyond all expectations. On December 26, one of the best coaches in the world, Carlo Ancelotti, who signed a contract worth 11.5 million euros a year a few days ago, will sit on the bench. On paper, the Italian specialist will have an easy task on Boxing day as they host Burnley, but anyone who follows the Premiership knows how tough and unpredictable Sean Dyche’s team is. If you believe that Everton will react positively to the change of coach, the coefficient in b-Bets is 1.70.
Chelsea hasn’t been playing that well lately because it’s obviously wearing them out playing in the Champions League, but they’re still the fourth team in the championship even though they have more than a big gap behind the top three. In this round, they welcome Southampton and should celebrate, but you have to be careful because they lost the last game at home to Borunemouth with 1:0. Among the other games, Crystal Palace will welcome West Ham in the local derby, while last-placed Watford will visit Sheffield, which is one of the most pleasant surprises of the championship. Aston Villa will welcome Norwich and both teams will need points to survive.
Mini derby of the north
The time slot of 18:30 is reserved for the match between Manchester United and Newcastle. The coefficient is 1.30 on the home team, although it is about the teams in the eighth and ninth positions with the same number of points won, both 25, but United is ahead because of the positive goal difference. The Red Devils were disappointed last weekend as they were defeated by the weakest Watford team on the road with 2:0. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team more than obviously has problems with weaker teams and set defenses, and that will probably be the case this time as well. United are much better against stronger rivals when they wait for their chance on the counter. If Newcastle win, it will apparently not be easy at all. Paul Pogba returned to the team after his injury, but it is still not entirely clear whether and in what way he will contribute to the better performances of this club.
Can Leicester stop Liverpool?
The derby of this round, when the two ranked teams will meet, is set for the prime time of 21:00. World and European champion Liverpool is coming to Leicester. The home team is in the second position and they play quite nice and attractive football, but they are currently ten points behind the Reds with a game in hand. This weekend, the Foxes visited City and lost 3:1 in a game in which they did not show much, except for Jami Vardy, who flashed in the middle of the first half and scored from the counter for a lead that Leicester could not keep for long. Vardy has 17 goals and is arguably the top scorer in the championship, and the general impression is that if anyone can beat Liverpool this season, it is definitely Leicester at the King Power Stadium.
Liverpool, on the other hand, did not play in the last round due to commitments at the Club World Cup in Doha. There, Jurgen Klopp’s team celebrated in the final against Flamengo with Roberto Firmino ‘s extra-time goal. The road they had to cover to Qatar and back, and they played two games there, is not helping the Reds either. Liverpool currently have 16 wins, only one draw, and have not lost a single game. For this match, the Unibet bookmaker offers 3.20 odds for Leicester to win, 3.75 for a draw and 2.15 for the visitors from Liverpool to win.
Manchester City closes the round in an unpleasant away game
The English are masters of marketing, so they will not play all the matches on Boxing Day, but will leave some for a day later. So on December 27, from 8:45 p.m., City will host Wolverhampton, which is a pretty solid team this year as well. They currently have 6 wins, 9 draws and only 3 losses and are again in the game for one of the places leading to European competitions, and in the Europa League they easily passed their group and ensured the European spring. In the previous game, they were narrowly defeated by Spurs with 2:1, but they celebrated with the same result last weekend at Norwich.
At the moment of playing this match, Guardiola will know the outcome of the Derby between Leicester and Liverpool, but no matter how it ends, the Spanish coach will have nothing left but to win this mini-derby if he wants to overtake the Foxes and get closer to the Reds, who at the moment have less to escape him with the game 11 points. After this round, City will wait for a series of, on paper, easier matches and they certainly won’t give up, and they have reason to be optimistic because Kevin De Bruyne is playing brilliantly, followed by Raheem Sterling quite solidly, and he returned to the pitch in the last round after an injury and the best scorer in the history of this club, Sergio Kun Aguero. Unibet odds on City vs Wolves are currently 1.40.