The fixture amendments for December 2024 and January 2025 have been released and, as ever, the busiest months of the football calendar produce a bumper pack of matches to get excited about.
There are 61 Premier League matches on live TV in the United Kingdom across these two months – the equivalent of one every other day – including three full rounds of matches.
Here, Alex Keble looks at 10 key takeaways from December and January’s fixture amendments.
Forty matches in 17 days
From 21 December to 6 January there are an incredible 40 Premier League matches, or four full match rounds, in just over two weeks.
The pick of the matches in this period look to be Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool, Newcastle United v Aston Villa and Liverpool v Manchester United.
A whole day of Premier League on Boxing Day
Boxing Day brings eight televised Premier League matches in the UK, with matches at 12:30 GMT, 15:00 GMT, 17:30 GMT, and 20:00 GMT, meaning you can watch over nine hours with barely any gaps in the action.
Manchester City v Everton, Wolverhampton Wanderers v Man Utd and Liverpool v Leicester City look to be great match-ups, while fans can choose to watch any of FIVE 15:00 GMT kick-offs including Newcastle v Aston Villa.
A big title-race weekend in late December
What makes the weekend of 21 and 22 December stand out is that Arsenal, Liverpool, and Man City are all on live UK TV – and two of them face fellow “top-five” teams.
Man City travel to Aston Villa in the early Saturday match before Arsenal are hosted by Crystal Palace in the late kick-off and Liverpool play at Spurs on Sunday. It could be a great weekend for the Gunners.
Manchester derby given primetime Sunday slot
Unsurprisingly, the first Manchester derby of the season has been moved to the 16:30 GMT slot on Sunday 15 December.
That’s good news for Man City, who after playing Juventus the previous Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League now have an extra 24 hours to recover. They’ll need it, too, with Aston Villa to come the weekend after.
No action on New Year’s Eve means Man Utd v Newcastle end 2024
For the first time since 2021/22 there are no Premier League fixtures taking places on 31 December, meaning the calendar year is wrapped up on 30 December with Man Utd v Newcastle at 20:00 GMT.
It’s the headline fixture of the day, starting 15 minutes later than Villa v Brighton & Hove Albion and Ipswich Town v Chelsea.
2025 gets started with Brentford v Arsenal
There’s an increasing trend in English football to measure a team’s calendar-year form, so there is interest in the year kicking off with the sole New Year’s Day fixture of Brentford v Arsenal.
Arsenal have won five of the last six matches against Brentford, drawing the other one in all competitions, so Mikel Arteta will expect 2025 to get off to a flying start.
Liverpool and Man Utd start 2025 against each other
Liverpool versus Man Utd on 5 January is the first match of the year for both clubs, meaning at least one of the two faces an underwhelming start to the year.
With a break for the FA Cup third round coming immediately after, the loser will have to stew on a bad result in the for a full two weeks. That’s no way to start 2025.
Midweek north London derby brings back memories of 2022 top-four decider
There were eight yellow cards in the first 48 minutes of a feisty and enthralling north London derby back in September, so we can expect big things from a midweek encounter on 15 January.
Derbies are always more special under the floodlights, and this one is no exception. The last midweek north London derby was back in May 2022, when a 3-0 win for Spurs closed the gap to just one point in the race for fourth. Spurs pipped Arsenal to the final Champions League place 10 days later.
Early kick-off in Merseyside derby
Liverpool don’t like the Saturday 12:30 kick-off, or at least Jurgen Klopp didn’t in recent years! But they will have to contend with it again on 7 December.
Liverpool have a tough clash at Newcastle United the previous Wednesday whereas Everton host Wolves on the same day. Might it give Everton a better chance of winning the last ever Premier League Merseyside derby at Goodison Park?
Sunday 19:00 slot is a new test for Chelsea, Man Utd and Spurs
There are THREE matches scheduled for 19:00 GMT on a Sunday. This won’t be the first occasion a Premier League fixture has been played in that slot, but it’s certainly rare.
Two of them are on 15 December, when Chelsea host Brentford and Southampton welcome Spurs, after Chelsea and Spurs will have featured in Europe three days earlier, away to Astana and Rangers respectively.
The other Sunday 19:00 match is on 26 January, with Man Utd travelling to Fulham, three days after the Red Devils play Rangers in the UEFA Europa League.