Boxing Day in England is traditionally an important day for football. But this time the pandemic is shaking things up a lot.
December 26th is the biggest festival day in British football. Boxing Day on the island of Boxing Day is an important day of football, on which all teams in the league traditionally compete. This year he will be overshadowed by the pandemic – but defending champion Manchester city shows himself unimpressed by any worries. Team manager Pep Guardiola’s team consolidates their top position in the Premier League with a wild 6: 3 (4: 0) against Leicester City and now has six points ahead of pursuers Liverpool, whose game against Leeds United canceled due to too many corona cases would.
Kevin De Bruyne (5th), Riyad Mahrez (14th, penalty kick), international Ilkay Gündogan (21st) and Raheem Sterling (25th, penalty kick) shot a quick 4-0 lead for Manchester City. After that, the hosts took it easy. James Maddison (55th), the ex-Leipzig Ademola Lookman (59th) and Kelechi Iheanacho (66th) punished the carelessness of the favorite and made it exciting again. But then Aymeric Laporte (69th) and again Sterling (87th) met for Manchester.
The is still on the upswing Arsenal FC. The ex-champions won easily 5-0 (2-0) at bottom group Norwich City and claimed fourth place. National goalkeeper Bernd Leno was again only on the bench.
Tottenham Hotspur defeated Crystal Palace 3-0 (2-0). The guests had to do without team manager Patrick Vieira, who had tested positive for the corona virus – not an isolated case. A total of three games were canceled on Boxing Day, and the Premier League now has to make up 14 games. The Omikron variant has long kept the whole country in suspense, numerous clubs are groaning under the additional burden of more and more positive tests.
Also Aston Villa must against Chelsea – the game has been running since 6.30 p.m. without team manager Steven Gerrard, who is also suffering from Corona. Catch-up dates are difficult to find in the tight schedule with two cup competitions.
Liverpool team manager Jürgen Klopp has complained for years about the overloading of the players: “I’ve been talking about it for six years or more. I can’t see that there will be changes.”