Holiday Football Summary
4 min
The Christmas schedule in England certainly lived up to expectations as Club Football made an emphatic return to our screens. Boxing day sport is a much-loved tradition in England and it was feared that fans might be deprived of their festive fix this year. However, despite the short turnaround after the World Cup, matches were scheduled and it was just as well.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday
These were quiet days as there was no action from England, owing to the EFL cup fixtures earlier in the week as well as the traditional Boxing Day schedule. There were a number of matches on offer from other countries though over the weekend. On Friday, Rangers managed to pick up three points on the road in Scotland and there were away wins for Ankaragucu and Basaksehir in the Turkish Super Lig.
Saturday saw the rest of the teams in Scotland in action and there were big wins for Celtic, St Mirren and Hibernian. In Turkey, there were wins for Sivasspor and Trabzonspor. On Sunday, the only major league in play was Turkey once again, where there were wins for Adana Demirspor and Galatasaray.
Boxing Day Football
The action from the Premier League covered the whole of the day with the early kick off being a match between two London teams, Brentford and Tottenham. The visiting team started poorly and found themselves two goals down to a fired up Brentford team. Tottenham did rally and goals from Kane and Hjobjerg rescued a point and ensured that they would keep their place in the top four no matter what happened elsewhere. There were four 16:00 matches and they all ended up being wins for the away side. Fulham were far the better team against Crystal Palace, although two red cards for the home team did not help their cause. Newcastle continued where they left off with another impressive performance as they won 3-0 at Leicester.
Southampton’s struggles continue, despite a new manager coming in, and they lost 3-1 at home to south coast rivals Brighton, who continue to have an excellent season. Everton’s poor run continues as they lost at home to Wolves, a worry for manager Frank Lampard who continues to struggle to get anything out of his players. New Wolves manager Lopetegui will be very pleased to have started his reign with a league win though.
The late afternoon match saw Aston Villa host Liverpool, with the visiting team getting off to an excellent start and winning the first half 2-0. Aston Villa rallied in the second half and put in a far better performance, threatening Liverpool on a number of occasions. They could only manage one goal in the end though, Ollie Watkins finding the target.
Liverpool youngster Bajcetic put the tie beyond doubt with a third goal in the 81st minute. The final match of the day saw league leaders Arsenal host West Ham. The visiting team took the lead in the first half, scoring from the penalty spot but Arsenal roared back in the second half with three goals to seal what was ultimately a comfortable win.
There were ten matches from the Championship on Monday. This extremely competitive and entertaining league is always a good watch and these few days were no exception. The top two are in a league of their own but there are only seven points between third place and sixteenth, which shows how the table can change with one set of results. Millwall got the better of Watford in the early match and there were wins for Sunderland, West Brom, Sheffield United and Luton amongst others.
Tuesday’s action
The schedule from England continued on beyond Monday with two matches being played in the Premier League as well as in the Championship. Chelsea and Manchester United were comfortable winners against Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest respectively. United now find themselves only one point behind Tottenham in fourth place and are looking increasingly likely to maintain a charge for a top four place that they crave. In the Championship there were wins for Reading and Burnley over Swansea and Birmingham respectively. Burnley’s win was their fourth in a row and fourteenth of the season and leaves them three points clear of second placed Sheffield United at the top of the table. There were also three matches from the Turkey Super Lig with leaders Fenerbahce picking up another three points.
On Wednesday the final match from this round of the Premier League will be played as Leeds welcome Manchester City to Elland road. There are also fixtures in Scotland, Turkey and Portugal and the French Ligue 1 returns to action following its break. The action continues throughout the week with another full schedule of events over the weekend to look forward to as more competitions return to action and club football gets back into its usual routine.
