Boxing Day: Manchester United win while City lose in wild matches

It didn’t work very well. There was some promising play (mostly via Suarez), but it was Stoke who looked the more dangerous, and indeed the Potters doubled their lead when Walters did superbly to chest down a long throw and volley past Reina shortly after the interval.

This wasn’t a match that will go down in the history books as a classic. It probably barely qualifies to go down in the history books as a football match. Fulham and Southampton drew 1-1 at Craven Cottage thanks to a Dimitar Berbatov goal and a late Saints penalty. There’s not much else to say that doesn’t involve talking about Berbatov’s undergarments.

So let’s discuss those. The Bulgarian opened the scoring after being gifted with a chance at the far post, which he converted in typically composed fashion. Then he revealed a t-shirt that claimed ‘Keep Calm and Pass Me the Ball’, which is significantly more interesting and important than anything else that happened in this match.

That call had Alex Ferguson absolutely livid, and perhaps for good reason, but the United boss was lucky to not get sent off. After the teams came out of the tunnel to start the second half, Ferguson went onto the pitch and berated Dean for an extended period of time, then took to berating both the fourth official and the linesman. Incredibly, Dean didn’t send him to the stands.

Javier Hernandez’s winner came in the 90th minute, assisted by Michael Carrick with a spectacular ball. He chipped a diagonal over the top of the Magpies defense into the box, and Hernandez stayed level with the defense to avoid an offside call before poking a first-time shot past Krul to steal three points for United.

Let’s get a deal worked out with that train drivers’ union?

Every year, the Premier League has every team play on Boxing Day. Because it’s the only thing on television in the United Kingdom, as well as the only thing on television in the morning on the western side of the Atlantic, they don’t schedule any marquee games because you’re going to watch anyway.

The Premier League schedule is “randomly” determined by a scheduling robot, but it can be told not to schedule certain games on certain days to deal with scheduling conflicts ... or undesirable fixtures for the league. See, they need to save the good ones for days when you have something else to do other than watch their league. While there are a few watchable games, there aren’t any truly marquee ones, and that’s okay.