Five things to take away from the festive fixtures.
Another Boxing Day has come and gone, with ten Premier League fixtures providing an array of goals, incident and general festive fun for football fans across the country.
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With the dust and the turkey now well and truly settled, we’ve taken a look back over the action and picked out five things we learned from the Boxing Day action.
Arsenal still have a self-destructive streak
Arsenal’s attempt at throwing away a routine three points against Queens Park Rangers at the Emirates Stadium really was something to behold. A goal to the good and seemingly in complete control against a side who are borderline disgraceful on the road, Olivier Giroud overreacted to a push from Armand Traore and inexplicably headbutted the former Gunner. Despite scoring soon afterwards through Tomas Rosicky, a Charlie Austin penalty brought Rangers back into it and, by the end, Arsenal were clinging on to a point.
Sam Allardyce maybe hasn’t moved as quickly as his team
Fair has to be fair when it comes to West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce – he has put together a team this season that is overachieving and playing some fine football in the process. The trip to Chelsea gave a glimpse of the ghost of Big Sam past, however, as he rested the exciting Alexandre Song and Diafra Sakho against a Chelsea team who can lack mobility defensively, instead returning to the Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan axis. It didn’t work and it wasn’t pretty.
Simon Mignolet is a footballer on the brink
It’s becoming very difficult to watch Simon Mignolet right now. After being dropped for an “indefinite” period of time by manager Brendan Rodgers, the Belgian was unexpectedly thrust back into the limelight after Brad Jones went off injured at Burnley and he looked a man bereft of all belief. He nearly gifted the hosts a goal by kicking the ball against Danny Ings and losing his bearings and allowing Mamadou Sakho’s backpass to go out for a corner was bizarre.
Premier League managers blame referees far too often
There were plenty of controversial decisions during Boxing Day’s action, but the decision of the collective Premier League managers to blame referees for their shortcomings was disheartening. Burnley boss Sean Dyche stretched the limit of time that can elapse before a decision can be blamed for conceding to its very limit, whilst Roberto Martinez looked past his side’s shortcomings at Goodison Park by pointing the finger at Lee Mason and Alan Pardew’s shout for a penalty was pathetic. At the other end of the spectrum, Gus Poyet had a point when he brought up a clear handball, which Steve Bruce inexplicably felt the referee was correct in not awarding.
Stoke City suddenly have an excellent Barcelona connection
It may have been unthinkable in the days of percentage football under Tony Pulis, but Stoke City’s victory at Everton was built on the performances of two graduates from Barcelona’s much vaunted La Masia youth system. Young central defender Marc Muniesa was imperious at the back for Mark Hughes’ side, whilst one-time wonderkid Bojan Krkic continued his emergence as one of the Premier League’s most impressive creative performers.