Training, tactics sessions and busy preparations for teams’ Boxing Day fixtures have, in years gone by, restricted 25th December’s family time for footballers to only a handful of hours.
But after the busiest fixture calendar in modern Crystal Palace history, with 28 games already played in all competitions, the Premier League fixture generator has dealt the Eagles a kinder hand this year with respect to the timing of their next match!
With Palace not in action again until Sunday (28th December) – following a run of three games in three different competitions in six days in the last week – players and staff have been afforded the rare luxury of both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off this year!
As Manager Oliver Glasner explained following Tuesday's game against Arsenal, loved ones must be the focus of this time of year: "I think now it's so important to switch off and not talk about football.
"Everybody has a family. The parents deserve that their sons come home – not that the football player comes home. Their wives, their girlfriends, the children, [deserve] that the dad and the husband is now at home, not the football player, talking about football.
“Two and a half days [returning late on Boxing Day], really switching off completely. We have five games in the next two weeks, but now it's really: leave football."
