Boxing Day 2011 Recap:

We got to witness a bunch of really great games today on Boxing Day. It started with London Blues, Chelsea FC hosting London Whites, Fulham FC. The first half ended nil-nil, with great chances from both sides. Dembélé showed a lot of his great footwork, as usual. Once the second half was underway, Fernando Torres set up a great chance for Juan Mata, who smashed the ball to the back of the net. Less than ten minutes later, Bryan Ruiz used so fancy footwork to fake, turn and pass to Clint Dempsey who sent home the equalizer. The score remained the same throughout the rest of the match though both sides having plenty of other chances to snatch the lead, Sturridge and Drogba to be more specific. An overall exciting and close match.

Then the 10 o’clock matches, (4 o’clock in England) were underway. Manchester City took on West Bromich Albion, Manchester United smashed Wigan, Newcastle played Bolton, Liverpool were held against Blackburn and Everton took on Sunderland. Arsenal’s match against Wolves was postponed.

League leaders Man City were surprisingly held a full time 0-0 by West Brom. Whenever City had a chance, they managed to let it slip away. Super Mario Balotelli was quiet for most of the match besides hitting the woodwork from quite a distance. Only two points behind were defending champs, Manchester United needed a win to close in on their noisy neighbors. We got to see the United play much like they did last season smashing Wigan 5-0. This was their second consecutive 5-0 win, the last one being over Fulham. It started with an early goal from Ji-Sung Park. Dimitar Berbatov proved to Sir Alex Ferguson, that he still deserves a starting spot in the starting XI by tucking away a hat trick. Antonio Valencia also jumped on the score sheet by smashing one away to the corner of the net.

Newcastle and Bolton were stuck nil-nil for majority of the match, until Ben Arfa found the back of the net in the 69th minute. Two minutes later, Demba Ba doubled that lead for the match to end 2-0. Ba has been in superior form lately and might make himself a transfer target this
January. As for Merseyside, both Liverpool and Everton were held 1-1 by Blackburn and Sunderland respectively. Charlie Adam scored; unfortunately it was an Own Goal. Rodriguez equalized for the reds, to take home one point. As for the Toffees, Sunderland shut them down with a first half goal. The blues wouldn’t quit as Baines converted a penalty.

The last Boxing Day match goes to Stoke City hosting Aston Villa. There was a quick start to the match yet nothing came from these chances. The first half continued to end as a 0-0 draw. Delfouneso replaced Heskey at the half and had an early chance. As time went on it remained 0-0 and both teams lacked imagination. Stoke City come very close, but Agbonlahor clears it off the line. Other than that, the match was decent, but no action in the scoreline.

That sums it up for Boxing Day, and if you missed the action and want to watch some replays, I suggest watching Chelsea v Fulham, and Manchester United v Wigan. Join us tomorrow for EPL updates on twitter by following @flagisup. Also like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/pages/The-Flag-Is-Up-Soccer-Blog/171246266253046

-JoeyB