The hectic Christmas holiday season of 4 games in a ten day is over and the pieces are beginning to fall into place.

Gareth Bale celebrating as Tottenham move up the table

As we review the results we can see who made strides over the Christmas period, versus who the leaders were and its potential long term effects on the season. The winners will look to cement themselves as legitimate challengers while losers will have their hopes put to the test.

Manchester United come out trumps after going undefeated; winning three and drawing one extending their lead at the top the premiership to 7 points. United capped off the season with an impressive 4-0 win over relegation strugglers Wigan, with two goals each from Robin van Persie and Chicharito. Almost seeming to put an exclamation mark on their intentions.

Manchester City, in second place, were not as fortunate as they dropped three points with a surprising 1-0 loss to Sunderland, while struggling to beat Norwich 4-3 in a thriller and a 1-0 win over Reading. Although thry have dropped points, City will go into the New Year full of confidence, even though 7 points behind.

City look to be in good stead as long as they can keep from self destructing. In the long run, it looks as though it may come down to the two Manchester sides again fighting for the title.

Tottenham Hotspurs come through the holiday season in flying colors moving up one place to third, extending their good run of form, to 7 wins from their past 9 games.
Their performances included an impressive 4-0 road win over Aston Villa and 3-1 win over Reading to wrap up the year. Results are falling in place for Spurs as manager Andreas Villas Boas appears to have it going in the right direction, as Spurs continue to look the part of legitimate top four team.

Wintery conditions means we need an orange ball

Perennial top four challengers Chelsea and Arsenal both seem to have issues with inconsistency. Chelsea on the backs of their disappointing World Club cup turned it on against lowly Aston Villa putting them to he sword in a 8-0 hiding. They followed it up with decent results over Everton and Norwich, before it all came crashing down with a dramatic 1-0 loss to QPR. Arsenal’s results and performances pretty much mirrored Chelsea. Having an impressive 7-3 win over Newcastle with Theo Walcott scoring a hatrick, then a 5-2 win over Reading, before the inconsistent Arsenal showed up, with a poor performance and result with in a 1-1 draw with Southampton.

The other top four and top 7 hopefuls, Liverpool, Everton,
West Brom, all had indifferent holiday periods picking up wins and losses in equal measure. Not making or losing ground.

With the crucial Christmas holiday season, all the major competitors escaped not to worse for wear and the 2nd half of the season is upon us. As Manchester United Sir Alec Ferguson has famously said, “you don’t win anything in December”. That might be the case, but it certainly gives a great indication as to who will be involved in making the final push for the Championship and the top four champions league positions. Only time will tell.