Another weekend of Premier League football, another weekend of surprise results, and looking at the list of Boxing Day fixtures, it really wouldn’t be a surprise if there were yet more surprises, if you see what I mean. As well as the potential break up of the “big four” this season, we have also seen the 500 goals mark reached in the Premier League in a far shorter period of time than ever before following Nadir Belhadj’s goal against Liverpool last Saturday, and on top of that, the side with the fewest number of defeats so far have sacked their manager. The relegation battle is even more competitive than last season, with more than half of the division realistically involved, and with the transfer window and the disruption of the African Cup of Nations still to come, the talking points will no doubt continue and intensify right through to the end of the season.

Whether you support a successful side, a mediocre one, or Darlington, I’m sure you’ve had cause over the years to criticise some of your team’s manager’s decisions. Ill-advised substitutions or tactics, dodgy acquisitions, or just being Sam Allardyce are all justifiable causes for fans to be concerned about their sides’ guardians, but in my opinion on Tuesday, Mick McCarthy made an unforgiveable decision that may well come back to haunt his relegation-threatened side in May. Having won their previous two matches, including away to Spurs, and dragged themselves out of the bottom three, McCarthy decided that, faced with a trip to an injury-hit Old Trafford, he would change all ten outfield players and simply roll over for United by putting his reserves on the pitch. This act came shortly after a weekend when shock results were prevalent, and in a season where Burnley have beaten Man.United and Wigan have beaten Chelsea, so to just give up before a ball was kicked was quite astounding, and the fans who had paid

Ever heard of Paul Weaver? Neither had I until about 4:25 on Sunday when he scored his first ever goal for East Stirling to secure the final leg of last week’s suggested accumulator. In fact, none of the five sides selected even conceded a goal, which made for a rather more comfortable weekend than usual, and those of you who followed the advice would now be collecting a return of nearly 6.4 times your stake. I’ll have a crack at handing the bookies their money back later, but first let’s concentrate on another round of Premier League action to follow up from last week’s matches that produced the usual array of controversy, great goals and spirited comebacks, together with four penalty misses from three of the League’s star names, plus Aruna Dindane.

So is that it then? Do we already know the Premier League champions before we’ve even got stuck into December? Having brushed aside Arsenal and Liverpool, and overcome Man.United even on an off-day in terms of their performance, Chelsea seem to have put themselves in an almost unassailable position mainly due to the quality of their squad. While the youngsters and reserves of their rivals have proven themselves eminently incapable of taking advantage of their opportunities when they have arisen, Chelsea have almost an entire team of proven internationals in reserve, and that is what should see them through the next possible obstacle to their ambitions, the African Cup of Nations in January. Among the notable absentees for the Blues for up to four weeks will be Didier Drogba, but other clubs will possibly suffer to a greater extent given their lack of quality replacements. There is one club, however, who may be pleased at the tournament’s imminent kick-off, and that is Portsmouth, who should be glad to see the