The Boxing Day action from the Barclays Premier League is in the books and the results – for the most part – were far from astonishing. While the day kicked off with league leaders Chelsea held to an away draw in the only surprise result of the day, the remainder of the action seemed like a formality for both the favorites and the underdogs. Let’s discuss some of the reds and blues of a day that is always decorated with nonstop Premier League activity as other leagues just begin their holiday.

The Reds

When speaking about the reds of the Boxing Day, there is no need to look any further than Rafa’s much maligned Reds. The Anfield outfit has been under a lot of pressure due to the fact that the Kop has largely forgotten what victory feels like.

As the league’s most static and listless outfit – Wolverhampton Wanderers – made the evening trip to Merseyside, the Stanley Park neighborhood (of course, barring the Evertonians) was finally hoping for a holiday present in the form of three much needed points. Alberto Aquilani started for the home side and worked hard to create chances in the early stages. Although his efforts in the first half were certainly in vain, his skipper Steven Gerrard finally inspired the team to take the lead in the second half.

With Stephen Ward sent off for his second yellow card, Gerrard converted a brilliant Emiliano Insua cross to pull ahead of the helpless Wolves. A few minutes later, Yossi Benayoun sealed the points as his deflected shot left the unfortunate visitors dumbfounded. By no means was it an impressive win, but as the old saying goes, three points are three points, especially when they are needed this desperately.

Wearing their red stripes, Sunderland also held the visiting Everton to a 1-1 draw, heaping more misery on David Moyes’ underachieving Toffees. It should be obvious that the Blue half of Merseyside was less than impressed on Boxing Day following the 2-0 win for their neighbors at Anfield. However, despite the Reds’ own struggles, it’s not like Everton still stands a realistic chance to catch them in the table. For the Goodison Park faithful, the focus should now shift towards a respectful survival in a horrendous season.

The Blues

We’ve already addressed the disappointment of Carlo Ancelotti’s Blues at their early afternoon draw at St. Andrews. Even though credit also goes to Alex McLeish’s men for a valiant effort that almost gave them a shock win had it not been for their goal being correctly flagged, Ancelotti conceded that Chelsea’s failure to convert six or seven clear chances was down to more than just Joe Hart’s heroic performance in the Birmingham City goal.

As the Italian explained, the men from the Bridge are finally experiencing fatigue issues and their frustrations are being compounded with every dropped point. Nevertheless, they remain at the summit of the table and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils will have to fight hard to retain a crown that has stayed at Old Trafford for the last three years.

The blue shirts of Portsmouth felt a lot more like the Blues of Ancelotti than the Blues of McLeish. They struggled endlessly at Upton Park as West Ham’s summer signings Alessandro Diamanti and Radoslav Kovac scored to seal three crucial points for Gianfranco Zola’s Hammers. This relegation six-pointer could go a long way in deciding the fate of both teams and by the looks of it, the East London outfit has given itself a good shot at survival by this important Boxing Day win.

Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City career also began with a success as the Sky Blues beat the rugged Stoke City 2-0 at home thanks to goals from Martin Petrov and Carlos Tevez. Meanwhile, the blue and whites of Wigan, as well as Blackburn, fought hard in a 1-1 draw at the DW Stadium as Benni McCarthy’s much awaited first goal of the season was cancelled out by Hugo Rodallega’s inevitable equalizing header. I say inevitable because regardless of how much Roberto Martinez insists on adding new firepower, he can always count on the unstoppable and ever-dependable Rodallega.

How about those white shirts?

Three teams whose default outfits are white – Tottenham, Fulham, and Bolton – ended up with a point each as the former two fought to a goalless draw in a London derby played at Craven Cottage. The Trotters, meanwhile, made things a lot more interesting as Matty Taylor struck a superb free-kick (what else is new?) to give them the lead at the fortress known as Turf Moor. However, David Nugent hit back with an equalizer to show that the recent home draw against Arsenal was no fluke. Perhaps Rafa Benitez is passing the torch to Burnley to become the new draw specialists in the Premier League – at least at home.

All in all, we saw eight entertaining fixtures played out at Boxing Day. Sadly, only three of them yielded results while the rest were either goalless (two games) or 1-1 draws (three games).  In Sunday’s action, third-placed Arsenal will battle to stay close to the top two as Martin O’ Neill’s fourth-placed Villans make an exciting trip to The Emirates.

Last, but not least, second from bottom Hull City will host Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United while hoping to replicate Fulham’s shock 3-0 win against the champions last week. To find out if Hull stands a chance, or to determine who amongst Arsenal, Aston Villa, and United manages to close the gap on Chelsea before the FA Cup break, make sure to follow all the Barclays Premier League action that follows Boxing Day.

Manchester United have MUTV, Chelsea have Chelsea TV and Liverpool have the History Channel. This season has been disaster followed by disaster for Liverpool, much to the delight of fans of other clubs. The opening day defeat to Tottenham proved to be a precursor for the shambles that has so far unfolded this season.

Last weekend’s defeat to Portsmouth was another embarrassing stat on Liverpool’s sorry season and further performances like this over the Christmas period will push them farther away from challenging for the top four. Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres have been troubled by injury, and even with them in the team they are struggling with the huge pressure placed on them to perform and win games by themselves.

The manager also has to be blamed for Liverpool’s predicament. The longer Benitez stays the more stagnant and less progressive Liverpool will become. As a Manchester United supporter, I hope Benitez stays for as long as possible as he provides great entertainment for fans of the other clubs. He makes bizarre decisions and his excuses are quickly running out.

One of the major talking points this season is the inconsistency of the major sides. Manchester United have been dreadful in quite a few games and I have no faith in them getting past AC Milan in the Champions League Round of 16. In the home game against Aston Villa, it was hardly a wise move starting with a 4-5-1 and putting a player who scored a hat-trick in the Champions League in midweek on the bench. Last weekend’s performance was again inadequate, and although excuses could be made given the defensive crisis, the midfield was still dreadful and Paul Scholes no longer has the legs to cope with the demands of away league games.

Even though Dimitar Berbatov was on the bench on Saturday he has not brought an improvement to his game this season and he may be offloaded in the summer. Berbatov has been a big disappointment and the sooner Ferguson cuts his losses on him the better.

Chelsea also slipped up against West Ham at the weekend and they are failing to take advantage of the other teams slipping up and extend their lead. Petr Cech is no longer a top goalkeeper and the criticism of his performances are justified. If Chelsea find form then one would expect them to go on and win the league as United are not convincing in their performances and Arsenal are vulnerable without key players like Fabregas and Van Persie. It will be interesting to see if Arsenal experience a slump in the second half of the season like they did for the past few seasons.

Aston Villa have also been victims of the slump in the second half of the season in the past. But over the last few weeks they have certainly been on form and they are certainly contenders for the fourth Champions League spot along with Tottenham and Man City. They are a well balanced side with players on top form like Ashley Young and James Milner. John Carew or Emile Heskey can always make an impact and provide a goal, and in the game against United, arguably Villa had the better side on paper.

Finally, Roberto Mancini has replaced Mark Hughes as Manchester City manager and Hughes has every right to be unhappy. Mancini was very lucky to have the success he had at Inter Milan as it coincided with the match fixing scandal in Italian football. During his reign in the Champions League  they didn’t make any impact. Hughes is a good manager as he proved over a long period at Blackburn and he should have been given more time.

The manager’s position at City could become a poisoned chalice like the one at Chelsea became after Mourinho. It certainly looks like we have plenty to look forward to over the rest of the season with lots of questions to be answered.