No Premiership surprises this Christmas

The Christmas fixtures were not all that were cracked up to be. They may have looked tasty on paper, but poor performances mixed with harsh winter weather made the later stages of December 2009 predictable and boring.

Aston Villas brilliant past performances were put to bed with losses against Liverpool and Arsenal, meaning they could struggle to pick up the same pace over the up and coming important months. An important FA Cup win on Saturday could provide a much needed spring board for future matches.

Liverpool showed slight signs of improvement but it still took until stoppage time for Fernando Torres, the Liverpool striker to find the net with a classy header. Liverpool seem to be a middle rate team at the moment with no real signs of any massive improvement coming soon and look to win two then lose one meaning they will struggle to claim the fourth spot “promised” by Liverpool manager Raphael Benitez.

Arsenal showed their usual Christmas Class by claiming two wins out of two and remain consistent, the issue with Arsenal remains their strength in depth should they lose one or three of their top players. That being said they seem to have coped well without Van Persie, the first choice Arsenal striker, who has been injured for two months, whether they can cope with the pace of up and coming games remains to be seen.

Manchester United did the bookies no favours by winning both their festive games including a 5-0 demolition of Wigan Athletic. United are now showing signs of improvement at a very important time in the season and should be there abouts come what May.

Chelsea picked up a possible four points from six which leaves them two points clear instead of the pre-Christmas four points Chelsea manager Ancelotti would have hoped for. With players now leaving for the African Cup of Nations it seems they will certainly need to strengthen in the January transfer window, to continue their charge for the Premiership title.

With the only real change at the bottom being West Ham moving out of the bottom three and with Gary Megsons poorly timed sacking it looks as though the current three holding up the rest of the table will still be there in May. Although it does look tight down there one will expect those teams above Bolton, Portsmouth and Hull City to be able to string a few results together to keep them clear.

The best online bookmakers have changed most prices ever so slightly with Chesea now at evens for the title and Portsmouth 3/1 on to be relegated at the end of the 2009/2010 season.

Ben Carso is a freelance article writer currently working on the online casino list.

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