The final Premier League weekend of the year is done and dusted and, while as compelling as always, ultimately three talking points stood out for this SBOTOP observer.
The first, to quote seasoned sports writer Oliver Holt, was the decimation of the Boxing Day programme in the top flight.
In an article in the Daily Mail, Holt accused both the league and the broadcaster Sky Sports of showing disdain for match-going fans.
It was hard to dispute the majority of what he said, particularly when he described the fact only one Premier League game was played on Boxing Day as an ‘act of cultural vandalism that should never have been allowed to happen’.
Holt went onto articulate the many positive contributions the broadcaster brings to the game, and the fact that lower league clubs in England may well have benefited from larger crowds as a result.
Yet the essence of his main argument remained.
To quote: ‘Between them, the Premier League and Sky have desecrated the Boxing Day fixture list. Their disdain for the match-going supporter, in fact, was so brazen, it was almost funny. Not content with wiping out one of the great traditions of our sport, the game at Old Trafford was given at 8pm kick-off, making it as difficult as possible for the travelling fans from the north-east to attend.’
On what is a landmark tradition for English football, Holt is absolutely correct and the absence of a programme of Premier League games on Boxing Day should never be allowed to happen again.
The sole contest that the journalist was referring to, if you haven’t guessed by now, saw Manchester United host Newcastle in the biggest fixture of the Christmas weekend.
And this did produce a Christmas cracker as Danish full-back Patrick Dorgu scored a stunning first United goal to seal a hard fought 1-0 victory over the Tynesiders.
Hit by injuries and players away at the African Cup of Nations, it was a rare moment for manager Ruben Amorim to enjoy.
He finally also selected a back four for the first time since arriving at the club, at least for the first hour of the contest, and was duly rewarded.
Newcastle, meanwhile, will feel hard done by to come away empty handed.
They are struggling to juggle the combination of domestic and European commitments and have now lost six of their last nine games.
If the solitary Boxing Day fixture was my first observation of the weekend, the second was the continued progress of Brentford.
Regular readers of this website will know I feared for them at the start of the campaign – and the Premier League 2025 betting odds didn’t back them to fare too well either.
The reasons were obvious: they ranged from the departure of manager Thomas Frank, who worked wonders from the minute he walked through the door in 2018, to the loss of on-field leadership, most notably in club captain Christian Nørgaard, veteran centre-back Ben Mee, strike duo Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa and goalkeeper Mark Flekken.
Add in the fact that Frank was replaced with a rookie in the shape of Keith Andrews, and I thought they were destined for the drop.
How wrong was I and, following notable wins against Manchester United and Liverpool in the autumn, they showed Bournemouth no mercy.
Kevin Schade was the hero with a hat-trick in a 4-1 win as the Bees moved up to eighth in the table.
For the Cherries, the consolation was scored by their main player this term in Antoine Semenyo who, it seems increasingly likely, will be moving on within the next week or so – there is a £65 million release clause in his contract which can be triggered between January 1 and 10.
The key question for Bournemouth is whether his departure would be a further blow to confidence – Andoni Iraola’s men have not won any of their last eight games – or whether it would reinvigorate a side which may have been affected by the constant speculation surrounding the soon to be 26 year-old.
The third and final talking point of the weekend for me centred on Aston Villa’s latest set of Premier League 2025 highlights.
No-one expects them to be genuine title contenders this season, even if they are just three points off the summit with the halfway stage of the campaign approaching.
But, in many ways, what Unai Emery is achieving in the Midlands is greater than many of his counterparts.
They have a far more limited budget and a far smaller squad but Emery has just guided Villa to 11 wins on the bounce in all competitions, equalling a club record, set in both September 1897 and March 1914.
That he has done so to keep Villa hot on the heels of pacesetters Arsenal and Manchester City is quite superb and shows what a top drawer manager he is.
Their 2-1 success at Chelsea, in which he introduced two-goal Ollie Watkins from the bench as one of three inspired substitutions, was further testament to that.
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