The tradition of Boxing Day soccer in England will be alive and well on Saturday, with a number of juicy matches around the English Premier League.
Kicking it off, Louis Van Gaal will look for a result to save his job against Stoke City away in the early game. After a dramatic press conference exit on Wednesday, the Dutch manager will look for his big-name players to step up and earn all three points.
Elsewhere, the EPL leaders Leicester City will travel to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. After initial success upon the German manager’s arrival, Liverpool has dropped off with results as of late, while Leicester has continued an absolute dream run to lead the league halfway through.
Guus Hiddink will take charge for the first time in his second stint in charge of Chelsea, with last year’s champions facing a tough test from high-flying Watford at Stamford Bridge.
If you will be watching today’s soccer, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today’s TV Schedule after the jump):
SOCCER SATURDAY
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
7:45 a.m. — NBCSN/NBC Sports Live Extra/NBC Universo — Stoke City vs. Manchester United
10 a.m. — NBC Sports Live Extra — Liverpool vs. Leicester City
10 a.m. — NBCSN/DirecTV/NBC Sports Live Extra — Manchester City vs. Sunderland
10 a.m. — NBC Sports Live Extra — Chelsea vs. Watford
10 a.m. — DirecTV/NBC Sports Live Extra — Tottenham vs. Norwich City
10 a.m. — DirecTV/NBC Sports Live Extra — Bournemouth vs. Crystal Palace
10 a.m. — DirecTV/NBC Sports Live Extra — Swansea City vs. West Bromwich Albion
10 a.m. — DirecTV/NBC Sports Live Extra — Aston Villa vs. West Ham United
12:30 p.m. — NBC/NBC Sports Live Extra — Newcastle United vs. Everton
2:45 p.m. — NBC/Telemundo/NBC Sports Live Extra — Southampton vs. Arsenal
ENGLISH LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
10 a.m. — beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español/beIN Sports Connect — Hull City vs. Burnley
12:15 p.m. — beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español/beIN Sports Connect — Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Reading
same old Arsenal … lol
Cleverley with the header from about the 18 at the death to win it for Everton 1-0. Howard had a great save down the stretch to give them the chance. the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat for Newcastle at home
LFC holds on for the win v Leicester. Mignolet with huge saves, and the D bends but does not break like in the previous home contests.
Hyndman went 71 mins for fulham
SUNDERLAND…….L…….O……..L……..
LoL…. Sunderland, just what the doctor ordered for a top of the table club to deliver a good pounding.
Yedlin not even on the bench for Sunderland. What gives?
What gives? How about Sam rates van a and jones over yedlin. Yedlin has gotten most of his starts in a 532 with jones playing lcb/rcb. Not to mention yedlin has also played against mid table teams rather than getting thrown in against the “top 5”. Personally I wouldn’t want him to play vs man city right now. They’re in the midst of a tough stretch vs Chelsea, city, Liverpool. So not getting minutes in those games isn’t the worst thing that could happen.
That said, billy jones has looked poor the past few weeks as van a has improved. I could see Sam going back to yedlin and Van a once the schedule eases up in a couple weeks. Yedlin is still a young and raw player so don’t expect him to be a week in/week out starter. And no that’s not a bad thing that he isn’t. He’s gaining experience and hopefully by the time he’s maybe 23/24 he could be a starter for some epl team
I bet this has nothing more than to do with games on Monday.
Good point as well
Appearantly Sunderland don’t play until Thursday but I feel ya
LoL……….. ManPoo
American youth Djair Parfitt- Williams on the bench for West Ham at Aston Villa today.
Tis the most wonderful time of the year-Boxing Day. The Manure are almost as awful as liverpool these days…pure garbage they are…it’s not only LVG’S fault…they don’t have a single decent player at the moment. Btu, then, again, he shipped away Chicharito…