Liverpool and Arsenal fans alike are growing in concern that their sides could have to play each other on Christmas Eve this year.
Sky Sports are going to move a Premier League fixture to Sunday 24th December in order to show it as a Super Sunday game, and according to the Daily Telegraph, Arsenal vs Liverpool is the most likely game to be chosen for the switch.
The game is currently scheduled for a 15:00 kick-off on Saturday 23rd December, a much more reasonable time; but a game of such magnitude is almost certain to be picked for television broadcast, which would guarantee that it can’t be played at the time it is currently penciled in for.
The more modernly-traditional time for such a big game is 16:00 on a Sunday afternoon, when Sky Sports show their second Super Sunday fixture; and it is for this reason that Liverpool fans are deeply concerned that they’ll have to make a trip to London and back just before Christmas Day.
Other notable fixtures that weekend include Leicester City vs Manchester United and Everton vs Chelsea, but neither of those games carry quite the same weight as a match between Jurgen Klopp’s Reds and Arsene Wenger’s Gunners sides — especially with both aiming for a top four place and the festive period being key in securing such a finish in the Premier League.
The game would finish, at least if there are no major stoppages in play, at around 17:50, so Liverpool fans would be looking at not being able to start their commute back to the north west until after 18:00.
Trains across the country are often difficult to come by on a Sunday, as well as during the festive period as two individual issues — but a Sunday during the festive period is an almost impossible situation.
It’s approximately a four hour drive from Anfield to the Emirates Stadium in good traffic, so the absolute earliest any Liverpool fan could get home to their family on Christmas Eve is around ten o’clock at night, which is a situation nobody wants.
Furthermore, time differences in the Far East mean that any fans of either club wishing to watch the game would be watching it in the early hours of the morning on Christmas Day, should it take place at the time it is feared to be moved to.
