LeBron James said it best: I love the NFL, but Christmas Day belongs to the NBA. If this is true, then another thing is true: Boxing Day belongs to the Premier League. Football has been played in England for over a century on the first day of Christmas. It is a tradition that keeps the fans of English football tied to their TVs or present at the stadiums.
Yesterday, hundreds of matches were played, from the Premier League to the Vanarama National League and in the tiers below. Boxing Day football offers excitement like no other day in the year, and a few secrets were revealed to those who watched the matches on December 26th. In this article, we’re going to reveal what seemed obvious to us once the last game of the day was played.
Manchester City’s Season is Done For
There is an ongoing joke on Reddit that Pep Guardiola is a ‘Bald Fraud.’ It is a satire that paints the Spaniard as a bad coach who only wins because he was given top talent to work with from his Barcelona days to today and unlimited budgets in Manchester and Munich. While these points are valid, Pep is a top coach. Yet, it appears that his magic has run out. Manchester City still has top talent in the league. Still, it would seem that Injury to Rodri, Dias, and Stones is too much to handle when you take into account that KDB and Gundogan were caught by father time and that Haaland, Grealish, and Bruno Silva are in the worst form of their lives. City is far from contending for the title, and a home draw to Everton would signal the end of days for any coach in the league with City’s recent results. Pep has more leverage than your ordinary Sunday League coach, so he will stay for a while. Still, the way things stand, the Citizens will be lucky to secure a Champions League spot at the end of the year, and this also might be the end of the road for Pep’s Manchester adventure.
Mo Salah is The Best Football Player in The World
This is the year of the Pharaoh. The Egyptian magician was one of the best players in the world in the past decade. Yet, his success was always overshadowed by Ronaldo and Messi and, more recently, by Haaland and Mbappe. Year in and year out, Salah was Liverpool’s best player. Just ask any Premier League Fantasy Football owner. The Egypt captain always finds a way to find himself on the stats sheet, and this year, he’s been instrumental in every game Liverpool played. When writing this article, the Pharaoh has 16 goals and 11 assists. If he keeps up his good form, he will undoubtedly win the Premier League Player of The Season award and put himself into contention for the Ballon d’Or. Liverpool is keeping the top position in the PL. If they win another title, it will all be thanks to Mo Salah, playing his best football in the contract year. We’re sure he will sign a new deal before the new year starts, as it wouldn’t make sense to make Salah a free agent. The Egyptian doesn;t hide the fact that he wants to be a Red for life, and we can only hope that the business side of things won;t prevail in Liverpool board making the right decision.
Manchester United Can’t be Cured
Manchester United is infected by a virus that makes the Red Devils play like red babies. Sir Alex Ferguson sold Old Trafford’s soul to the Devil for a few decades of success while at the club’s helm. How else would you explain that the team that won the PL with Park, Fletcher, O’Shea, Brown, Welbeck, Cleverly, and aging Paul Scholes can’t be in the top four today after having billions invested into the squad? Every few years, the Red Devils have a new shining toy at the manager position. Today, that role belongs to Ruben Amorim, who had his Sporting team playing the best and most efficient football in Europe. At the same time, Manchester now sits in 14th position with a negative goal differential. Suppose you want to hear our Premier League 2024/2025 predictions. In that case, you can bet Manchester United will miss out on European football. While this sounds harsh, we can’t see how Amorim can turn around the sinking ship that no man before him successfully steered for six months. At the end of the day we’re going have to take the hat off for another Portuguese expert, Jose Mournho, who stated that finishing second with Manchester United was his biggest managerial success. The way things stand now – he was right.
Wolves Are Safe
At the start of the season, Wolverhampton Wanderers had one of the more depleted squads in the league, selling their best players, such as Pedro Neto, without bringing in any substitutions. Garry O’Neil soon found himself battling relegation, playing the worst football in the league. The change at the helm was needed, and the Wolves brought in an experienced coach, Vitor Pereira, to change their fortunes. It only took two games for Vitor to change the appearance of Wolves, and with two wins from two games at the helm without conceding, Wolves look poised to exit the relegation battle before the end of January.
Southampton is Going Down
The Saints are the worst team in the league. Not even the hiring of Ivan Juric will change anything for the team. With six points from eighteen fixtures, they sit at the bottom of the PL, and we can bet that’s where they will stay come year-end. It would be best for Juric to start prepping his team for the transition to the Championship.
Everton is Staying Up
The Toffees are a team to watch this year. No, it is not because of the style of football they play. Because of the magic, Sean Dyche performs weekly at Goodison Park. In the last four games, they took five points. While that score doesn’t sound impressive at first sight, it is. Everton is working with a depleted squad; they’re in a bad spot financially, with no reinforcements in sight. Yet, they drew against Arsenal, Manchester City, and Chelsea. At the same time, they defeated Wolves and lost to Manchester United during a five-game stretch. Their next game is a home encounter against Forest, and we can bet they’re winning that one, making them one of the in-form PL teams.