Premier League Boxing Day, Gameweek 19: Open Thread
If you had to pick one day out of the year that’s the best day to watch Premier League soccer, today is it. The next best day is the final day of the season. But today there’s everything to play for on a festive day just one day after you hopefully had a wonderful Christmas.
Today is also one of those days when most of us probably would love to be living in Britain. It’s a day off work that you either spend mostly in the pub, or at the football ground watching your favorite club play. But luckily for the rest of us, thanks to the wonders of television and the Internet, we have an incredible nine Premier League matches to choose from all of which will be shown live. It’s just a shame that Arsenal spoiled the festivities by postponing their game against West Ham due to the Tube strike.
If you live in the United States, you have the opportunity to watch seven hours of consecutive Premier League football today from 10am ET until 5pm ET.
At 10am ET/7am PT/3pm UK time today, seven Premier League matches will be kicking off. You have your choice of Manchester United versus Newcastle, Sunderland against Manchester City, Norwich against Chelsea, Reading against Swansea, QPR vs West Bromwich Albion, Everton versus Wigan and Fulham against Southampton. Those matches are followed by Aston Villa against Tottenham Hotspur at 12:30pm ET. And last but not least, Stoke City plays Liverpool at 2:45pm ET.
For readers in the United States, here’s the TV and Internet guide for where you can find all of the Premier League matches today.
Follow along with all of the coverage today. Either before, during or after the matches, join in the conversation with soccer fans from around the world in the comments section below.
Have a Happy Boxing Day!
100 Responses to Premier League Boxing Day, Gameweek 19: Open Thread
Glad I have the day off.
Sunderland are one of City’s bogey teams and I think that will continue. Going for a draw.
United will batter Newcastle who are without Tiote, Cabaye and Ben Arfa. Big win for United.
Norwich will give Chelsea a run for their money and this will be a very close encounter. Chelsea might just nick it by the odd goal.
Aston Villa will bounce back from their heavy defeat at Chelsea and hold Spurs to a draw.
Liverpool always struggle against physical teams and Stoke will be hard to break down especially at home. Stoke will win this one 1-0 or 2-1.
QPR – West Brom might be the best game of the day. QPR need a win badly and West Brom are one of the surprise teams of the season. This one is too close to call so I’ll go for a draw.
Happy watching.
Like your Stoke pick, but Dust will think you’ve lost your mind on Spurs.
Newcastle might be without those players David but Man Utd have THAT defence!
Definitely looking forward to today’s games. Less than half an hour to go.
Planning to have 3 matches going for this morning.
Gonna be some good matches today!
So the goal wasn’t given now it’s given.
Correct call by the ref
Talksport are going with this but arguing that because Cisse is offside in the 6 yard box in front of De Gea he’s in play as Evan’s wouldn’t have gone for the ball if he wasn’t there.
Haven’t seen it myself but just passing this view on.
Just MO, but as a former ref, I think Dean was in error. If Cisse is not there offside in front of goal then Evans doesn’t have to make that desperate lunge. He has an easy clearance or De Gea has an easy save. Cisse’s positioning would be my definition of “interfering” with play.
Makes sense to me. Ref will get some stick from Fergie.
Hammering down with rain across the UK, Stoke is no exception. Second year in a row we get lumbered with the late KO at home on Boxing Day, along with the weather affecting travel that could have a negative effect on the crowd.
This the point where Stoke traditionally take their mid-season break. I’ve lost count of the times my old-man and I have said we’d love to see Stoke have a good Christmas and New Year. Over the past 11 seasons we’ve won 1, drawn 5 and lost 5 Boxing Day fixtures. We never seem to get over this hangover until mid-February. As we’re 8 matches unbeaten and Liverpool haven’t beaten us in the Premier League since our promotion I’m going with the law of averages and reckon we’ll lose today. I’ll be pleased with a draw.
That said if Brendan brings his Swansea tactic of death by a thousand passes and plays it in red then we stand a chance.
Either way I reckon we could blow the stats out of the water and have a high scoring win for either side.
That’s scuppered it! Don’t blame me if it’s 0-0.
Guy – great thread on The Oatcake about prototype glory hunters. Have a read if you haven’t seen it already.
As for everybody else they’re all already underway. It’d be good to be a fly on the wall at OT at half time. I reckon Norwich could come back and QPR will push WBA 2nd half as the away team have been stuck on a coach in traffic jams for hours.
Late Christmas present here fir Dust – Super Brad’s signed a contract extension until the end of 2014 today
.
Looks like the North East are giving Manchester a game today! Adam Johnson gets his own back on Mancini.
Ian Darke, please shut the f*ck up with the latest score updates. Every 15 minutes. Really? Completely pointless particularly as I can get the scores anytime on the Internet. Ruining the commentary.
Seeing/hearing scores doesn’t bother me personally, but I agree with you 100%. Who do they think is watching who doesn’t have access to the other scores if they want them?? Welcome to the 21st century, idiots.
Exactly. Almost seemed like he was getting paid per update. Had nothing else to say at times which is poor by his standards.
I love the updates, i think you guys should catch up with the rest of the sportsworld.
Well worth the 20 million.
Looks like he could be the difference this season. Get of jail free!
Him and Hernandez!
Please scholes and giggs just be men about it and retire. Gnev was a man and knew his time was up. These old guys have to go tired of seeing them play over the younger guys. This is why Pogba and Ravel left United.
Ravel is not fit to lace either pair of boots. Pogba was a loss. Otherwise I agree. Giggs still has some legs but the pair of them should not be starting games. Scholes looks knackered. But then he always did!
Crazy day so far!
Uggh. Seven points clear for rags/Yankees/Heat-Celtics-Lakers nation. And Crybaby Adam Johnson is the author of three of them.
Oh well, rough fixture up there in Sunderland every year for some reason. Very exciting match actually, if with bad result for everyone other than the braying mass of 13 year-old rags supporters worldwide.
Well stick to ur small time arab funded club. You guys will never be bigger than us. No class from your club and the mercenaries. I hope ffp screws you guys.
Typical Man City crybaby.
Lol. Nice editing, Gaffer.
Hehe.
What a game at OT. Could have gone either United way. Unfortunate incident in the end clear red card for Valencia.
Should have been second yellow for Valencia. Good win that we probably didn’t deserve with our defending but you take them anyway you can.
It was straight red. Valencia was late he left the ground with studs up and was clearly not in control of his tackle. Very reckless and dangerous.
Was he not already on a yellow card?
He was on a yellow and probably should’ve gotten a second. A straight red? Ludicrous. He may have been late, but not any of the other.
Boxing Day football is the best. Old trafford today reminded me of the seventies. End to end, mud, terrible conditions, chances, mistakes all over the place. Football the way it should be. Keep your winter breaks la liga and serie A. I’ll watch the epl if I want entertainment.
Everton simply outclassed Wigan today, though Wigan was denied a pretty clear penalty. Lee Mason called a VERY lenient game, which is awfully refreshing after the West Ham/Everton refereeing debacle last weekend.
Hey Dust, I hope you caught that interview on FS with your latest signing. Spurs locked up Super Brad for another year!
Coaching badges, there isn’t a better training facility in Europe to do them at now.
Darke and Macca getting all worked up over the linesman made me laugh. Linesmen have always been the target of abuse. The only difference now is that they get it from the coaches and not just the crowd. Where was the referee in all this? He has the power to send everyone of those mugs to the stands? Yet he let a member of his crew get hung out to dry. Poor show. And where was the 4th official? Surely it’s in his job description to keep order on the sidelines. Just shows how intimidating a drunk Glaswegian can be!
This isn’t going to be like the Stoke match, is it Dust? A million shots and no goals?
Ade has been horrible, 15 corners ad 0-0. What the F…
I’ll take another clean sheet
Lloris hasn’t picked the ball up yet
When Paul Lambert named his team today it was ….
1. Guzan
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7 .
8.
9.
10.
11.
Subs.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18. Bent
That is funny!
13 shots with 11 off target…WTF is that? And that’s with 2 alleged strikers on at the same time…. A joke! Players need to own not finishing and hustle more!
Charlie Adam to start for Stoke tonight. Given the circumstances surrounding this appearance he’s a surefire tip for MOM if any of you can get any money on it.
And that challenge on bale right there is why he jumps out of the way…unbelievable just hacks him down. No attempt to play the ball!
Guzan has been really poor since half-time.
Have a nip of Lagavulin, Dust.
There’s a new charity single out to help Villa buy some new players. It’s a familiar tune. The 12 goals of Christmas.
You have to STOP!
Ok, that concludes the Boxing Day fixtures for me. Can’t really call anything involving Stoke “football”.
Now, now. Do we not put it on our feet?
Pardon, was Walter’s volley not a prime example of this. Peeerrick!
Missed a good one, Smokey!
Can’t understand the love for Stoke on here, sorry. Good win but beating Liverpool is not what it used to be.
We’re taking over the world, Smokey.
Granted, Liverpool aren’t a “big” club anymore, but on the Stokie list of teams we love to beat Liverpool are right there with Arsenal. There is joy in Potterland tonight.
Did he just say bale was the best player in the league?
I thoght so too but then again this is Warren Barton a proven idiot. I guess mata rvp cazorla are just a bunch of wannabes.
A draw will suit me fine for the last game of the day
I need Stoke City to win and to keep a goalless game to help me get through to the next round of Fantasy Premier League football. Come on Stoke City!
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Music to my ears, Gaffer.
A stoke win against LFC could make great media fooder for the next few days…. F*** it….. C’mon stoke
&$*(&#(*$&(#! ARGH!
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Come in stoke get stuck in to these soft lads, they can’t handle the rough stuff. Make if a good old fashioned English game and you will get 3 points.
Not a good start.
Nice start for stoke
LOL @ Suarez. That was such a poor dive… He was being pulled back but Suarez ….LMFAO
He was being pulled back but defied gravity and fell forwards,
What are you going to do? Ryan Shawcross was obviously fouling Luis Suarez by pulling on his shirt, so if the referee isn’t going to call a penalty for a defender essentially man-handling a player, then Suarez’s only option to win the penalty is to fall down.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
He should have got the pen without the dive… But the dive was shameful
It looked to me like he waited till he was in the box then decided to go down. He was being fouled to be sure, and was being fouled as soon as he touched the ball. It was a penalty, but he certainly could have stayed on his feet (having done so for several steps already) and the foul should have been given before he even got in the box. Of course, it’s easy to say now having seen the replays repeatedly. In real time, the penalty was fair.
Great goal by Walters LOL @ LFC
Get in there stoke!!!!
That’s more like it!
Can’t see that yellow for Cameron. Foul, sure.
What a great day this is turning into.
Wouldn’t mind LFC looking like AV.
Can someone explain this new footballing style Rodgers is supposed to play. Liverpool look no different than any other team to me, maybe just not seeing it.
http://tikitakafootballcoaching.wordpress.com/the-book/
They can want to play like Barcalona all they like but when you don’t have the players with the technical ability to retain possession of the ball you might as well play like St. Mirren.
Besides I prefer the total football system the Dutch play to this tikitska stuff.
Jtm your manager fired today… Who do you want to see replace him?
Dust
bring back Billy and give him some money.I got to watch before work and happy to win get home and find out gaffer is axed.i think the Trees are just spinning their wheels.no direction 4 managers in 18 months dark days all we have is our history.
My money is on Roy Keane to get the job at Forest. I’m not a big fan of Billy Davies.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
he did a good job when he was their if he could have had a little money i think they could have been promoted.
Stoke b LFC is not a bad game
LoL
Goarrrrnnnnn STOKE!
Don’t take the foot off yet, Tony.
a fantastic day of games, but i think we should all be thankful that robin van persie’s attempted headers today did not aggravate his head trauma. what a true fighter he is!
Praise the lord RVP survived! It’s a Christmas miracle!
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Oh, no. Here comes the walking yellow card….if not worse.
I can hear ICK from here.
Suarez is very good, but he’s still a weasel.
Life is good, boys.
Lots of drunks in SOT tonight.
I cant handle FSC and these stupid tweets popping up on screen.
I’d be OK with it if the tweets were worth reading. All of them so far have been nonsense (i.e. no redeeming factors or interesting information or questions in them).
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Today’s result at Stoke shows what an overrated manager Rodgers really is. No tactical nous whatsoever. No wonder they lost to Aston Villa at home. Not a fluke result.
Stoke actually played well with good ball movement coupled with their physical and long-ball tactics. It works so why change.
GTFI! Best Christmas present I’ve had. Liverpool were shocking, Brendan is truly a one trick pony.
It said it all for me when we brought on Crouch, Brendan’s got no other option than Suarez. If that doesn’t work what can they do. No doubt there’ll be plenty of whinging from the deludeds of Liverpool.
Man City, Man Utd and Spanish sides are in for Begovic.
Over here the bookies had Stoke at 3/1 odds today! 9 games unbeaten today.
Here’s how sh*t Liverpool were, we haven’t scored more than 2 in a match this season and without the penalty Liverpool wouldn’t have scored if they played all night.
I hope we’re smart enough not to sell Bego. The team is one tight unit. I don’t want to see them messing with the pieces, especially not the goalie.
Some thoughts about the diving problem. The refs are to blame for a lot of the problem. Someone can be fouled and not taken down, but it seems they hardly ever call the foul unless the player goes down. So of course they are going to flop. I am a huge hockey fan as well and this had become a big problem in hockey too. Finally the refs were instructed to make the call even if the player did not go down, and to call a player that flopped for embellishment as well.
As an example the Suarez incident today I would have given the penalty and a yellow card to the defender. Suarez would also receive a yellow card for his embellishment by falling to the ground.
I know there is a group of people that think you have to call either a foul or a dive but as far as I am concerned you can have both on the same play and call them both.
COULDN’T AGREE MORE!!!
Dust
had to work caught the Trees win over Leeds which was great get home and find out our Gaffer was axed.i say bring back Billy and give him some cash.if they would have bought four years ago they would have made promotion oh well 4 managers in 18 months that says it all.