bwin Sportsblog - Football - Crucial Christmas Football

There are some interesting fixtures on Boxing Day and both Manchester clubs are in action with both of them expected to pick up wins. United entertain a struggling Wigan side while City travel to face West Brom who have picked up a few good results lately. It is down to the work of Roy Hodgson and his staff that West Brom are not on peoples lips to go down this season.

The clubs that are favoured for the drop are coming from the north west this year with Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan all in the bottom three. It is rumoured that the Blackburn owners cannot afford to fire their manager after offering him a big contract extension but the price of falling out of the Premier League is much greater. It is very difficult for a team that is bottom of the league at Christmas to fight their way out of trouble.

Blackburn Rovers have a mere 10pts from 17 league games and are 5pts adrift of Wolves. If that becomes 7-8pts then it is difficult to see them escaping. They travel to play Liverpool in what will be another tough encounter and Liverpool will be looking at this fixture as a possible three points in the bag based on how poorly Blackburn have been playing recently.