Premier League Schedule – December 26-27

The best game of the weekend is Aston Villa at Arsenal on Sunday. Each team has 35 points and a victory could vault the winner into second place, depending on the result of the Manchester United game. Liverpool desperately need a win to get their season back on track (I feel like I’ve written that sentence a lot this year.)

Saturday, December 26
Birmingham vs. Chelsea – 7:30 a.m. ET/ESPN2 (Live)
Fulham vs. Tottenham – 8 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)
West Ham vs. Portsmouth – 7:55 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Burnley vs. Bolton – 2:30 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Delayed)
Manchester City vs. Stoke – 9:55 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Sunderland vs. Everton – 10 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)
Wigan vs. Blackburn – 3 p.m. ET/Setanta (Delayed)
Liverpool vs. Wolves – 12:30 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Sunday, December 27
Arsenal vs. Aston Villa – 8:25 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Hull vs. Manchester United – 11 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Premier League Schedule Dec. 19-21

Manchester United looks to go joint top with a win over Fulham on Saturday, while Chelsea looks to keep a three-point gap from their closest challenger against West Ham Sunday.  Meanwhile, Liverpool needs a win over bottom-dwelling Portsmouth if they want to keep any hope of a top four finish alive.

I will add the US broadcasts for Fox Soccer games later tonight as the new Foxsoccer.com website doesn’t seem to want to give me that information at the moment.

Saturday, December 19
Portsmouth vs. Liverpool – 7:45 a.m. ET/ESPN2 (Live)
Aston Villa vs. Stoke
Blackburn vs. Tottenham
Fulham vs. Manchester United – 9:30 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Manchester City vs. Sunderland
Arsenal vs. Hull

Sunday, December 20
Wolves vs. Burnley – 8:25 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Everton vs. Birmingham
West Ham vs. Chelsea

Monday, December 21
Wigan vs. Bolton

Champions League 1st knockout round set

One of the most intriguing matchups is Chelsea playing against former manager Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan.  Defending champion Barcelona ended up with Stuttgart. In a change of format, four first leg games will be played Feb. 16 and 17 while the other four first leg contests will be Feb. 23 and 24. Second leg matches are March 9-10 and 16-17, respectively.

AC Milan vs. Manchester United
Lyon vs. Real Madrid
Bayern Munich vs. Fiorentina
Porto vs. Arsenal
Olympiacos vs. Bordeaux
Stuttgart vs. Barcelona
Inter Milan vs. Chelsea
CSKA Moskva vs. Sevilla

And since I’m a Liverpool fan and they are now in the Europa League, here’s the round of 32 draw for that competition. These fixtures are numbered because they are used to establish the draw for the round of 16. For example, if Liverpool wins at No. 9, they will play Lille or Fenerbahçe, the winner of No. 14.

1. FC Rubin Kazan vs. Hapoel Tel-Aviv
2. Athletic Club vs. RSC Anderlecht
3. FC København vs. Marseille
4. Panathinaikos vs. AS Roma
5. Atlético de Madrid vs. Galatasaray
6. Ajax vs. Juventus
7. Club Brugge vs. Valencia
8. Fulham vs. Shakhtar Donetsk
9. Liverpool vs. Unirea Urziceni
10. Hamburger vs. PSV Eindhoven
11. Villarreal vs. VfL Wolfsburg
12. R. Standard de Liège vs. Salzburg
13. FC Twente vs. Werder Bremen
14. LOSC Lille Métropole vs. Fenerbahçe
15. Everton vs. Sporting
16. Hertha BSC Berlin vs. Benfica

Premier League Schedule – December 5-6

Fernando Torres will not feature in Liverpool’s game at Blackburn this weekend due to an ongoing groin injury.  It was rumoured that he would play this weekend, however I suppose we will have to wait a little bit longer for the services of the fantastic Mr. Torres.

Saturday, December 5
Portsmouth vs. Burnley – 7:30 a.m. ET/ESPN2 (Live)
Arsenal vs. Stoke – 10 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)
Aston Villa vs. Hull – 7 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Delayed)
Blackburn vs. Liverpool – 5 p.m. ET/Setanta (Delayed)
West Ham vs. Manchester United – 9:30 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Wigan vs. Birmingham – 8:30 p.m. ET/Setanta (Delayed)
Wolves vs. Bolton
Manchester City vs. Chelsea – 12:30 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Sunday, December 6
Fulham vs. Sunderland – 9:55 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Everton vs. Tottenham – 11 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Premier League TV Schedule – November 28-29

There are some good games on tap this weekend. The biggest one is probably the Arsenal/Chelsea match Sunday afternoon. Both squads have been playing well and winning. Arsenal is eight points back from first place Chelsea, but is definitely capable of knocking off the leaders. On Saturday, fourth place Tottenham plays away to fifth place Aston Villa in a game that could have major top four implications. And of course, there’s the Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton, which is always a hard fought match.

Saturday, November 28
Blackburn vs. Stoke – 8:30 p.m. ET/Setanta (Delayed)
Fulham vs. Bolton – 5 p.m. ET/Setanta (Delayed)
Manchester City vs. Hull – 9:55 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Portsmouth vs. Manchester United – 9:45 a.m. ET/ESPN2 (Live)
West Ham vs. Burnley – 10 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)
Wigan vs. Sunderland – 7 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Delayed)
Aston Villa vs. Tottenham – 12:30 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Sunday, November 29
Wolves vs. Birmingham – 7 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Delayed)
Everton vs. Liverpool – 8:25 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Arsenal vs. Chelsea – 11 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)