Take That vs Mr. Blobby. Westlife vs Bob the Builder. Rage Against the Machine vs one or other of Simon Cowell’s performing mules. The battle for Christmas number 1 has thrown up some humdingers in recent years. For three Premier League clubs though, only one chart is worth being top of on Christmas Day this year.
Arsenal and Chelsea do battle in a in a top of the table six pointer on Monday night, the last slice of Premier League action before St Nick arrives down your chimney.
Should Liverpool drop points in their Saturday game at home to Cardiff, then the winner of the London derby will be top of the tree on Christmas morning. However, how significant will this be in predicting who will be celebrating a League triumph in May?
Since the inaugural Premier League season in 1992/1993, the leaders at Christmas have gone on to be crowned champions only nine times out of 21. The statistics of recent years though make better reading for whoever is leading the charge on December 25th of this year.
Based on nine seasons since 2004/2005, only two teams who have been top at Christmas have failed to hold on to the lead until the medals are given out. Namely, Arsenal in 2007/2008 and Liverpool in 2008/2009.
While the Christmas leaders should by no means be planning their early summer open-top bus parades, they can mark the achievement as a decent milestone and one which may inject some much-needed momentum into their springtime title charges.
So while Sam Bailey looks set to steamroller the competition in the festive music charts, there are still one or two things to be decided in the Premier League.
Fans beware though. Manchester United, ten points off the pace at the time of writing, have closed gaps wider than this Ms. Bailey’s grin before. Just ask Kevin Keegan.
Source: DSG
