Bah humbug: Chelsea get rare Christmas Eve fixture

The Premier League released this season’s festive fixtures today, which confirmed recent rumors that there will be a match played on Christmas Eve (December 24). And wouldn’t you know it, it’s Chelsea (and Wolves), who get this dubious ... special honor ... at Molineux.

At least that’s how the league are trying to sell it. The general reaction to it has been far less kind. The decision shows once again (as if we needed more proof), that it’s the UK broadcasters who run the league and fan concerns are secondary, at best.

There doesn’t seem to be any real rhyme or reason why this game has to be played on December 24 — sure it’s at 1pm local, so you can still get your Christmas dinner in with family ... unless you’re a traveling Chelsea fan (or stadium worker) of course. It’s the first time in 28 years that a Premier League match will be held on this holiday, and the reaction to that 1995 affair between Manchester United and Leeds United was not exactly kind either.

As far as I can gather, this will be the first game in Chelsea history on either December 24 or December 25.

The rest of our festive fixtures include a home match against Crystal Palace on Wednesday night, December 27 (no Boxing Day game for us) and then an away game against Luton Town Saturday noon, December 30. So that’s three games in the span of not quite 7 full days (less than 150 hours), just for funsies.