Premier League

Bristol Rovers's Lee Mansell kissed Gateshead's J.J. O'Donnell to diffuse a confrontation.

While the fair-weather softies on the Continent take two weeks off to stuff their cake holes with Gluhwein, stollen and panettone, the clean-living, bread and water puritans of the Barclays Premier League are bracing themselves for a week of utter madness. 

It’s Christmas Eve, and by now each and every one of you will be knee-deep in the “festive period”: your credit cards will be maxed out, the onset of gout is just around the corner, and your liver is the complexion and consistency of a duck pate that’s been sat in the sun too long.

Head injuries are nothing to be trifled with. With all of the new information that has arisen concerning concussions and their long term effects, watching a player get knocked unconscious, or suffer any sort of trauma to the head, can be a very troubling experience. 

So when the camera showed Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel on the ground on Sunday, blood pouring from his head, it was hard not to fear the worst. Replay did not help.

BT Sport put together a video of Christmas carolers bothering the populace with EPL chants.

What do they sing at a snowman’s birthday party? F-reeze a jolly good fellow! 

This is just one of the horrendous, yet funny jokes that the Everton football club told one another for the Christmas video below. One person who clearly was having a good time was Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian was cracking up for majority of the video, even if he didn’t understand the jokes, while teammate Ross Barkely pretty much hated being there the whole time. We’ll give Ross a pass considering he scored this screamer recently.

In this week's Premier League review, we examine Arsene Wenger's transfer market prowess, Brendan Rodger's latest cheery outlook and more.

Arsene Wenger’s Transfer Failings Are Costing Arsenal Dearly

With about five minutes of Sunday’s clash between Liverpool and Arsenal remaining, The18 started typing words such as “robust,” “hard-working,” “resolute” and “winning ugly”. Then Arsenal did what Arsenal invariably do: concede a late goal from a set-piece.

We understand that soccer is a game of passion. Fans are prone to celebrating every goal as if it were the best they’ve ever seen - and to mourning every loss as if it were a harbinger of death. With such a wide range of emotions, disagreements and fights are bound to happen. 

In preventing such brawls from occurring, it has to be said that soccer stadiums around the world are following the right protocol: keep the home and away fans seperate. It’s simple and effective. 

After a lethargic showing against arch-rival Manchester United last weekend, Brendan Rodgers’s Liverpool squad rebounded on Wednesday with a 3-1 victory over mighty Bournemouth in the quarterfinals of the Capital One Cup. Though Bournemouth currently are in first place in the Championship, the victory has done nothing to quiet the growing chorus of Scousers that want Rodgers sacked. Is this really fair given how close Liverpool came to winning the league last year?