Opinion | Debate on mid-winter break for English Premier League soccer
Calls for a mid-winter EPL break are ringing round stadiums again, but what would we do without the excitement of all those games?
As regular as a yuletide hark, calls for an English Premier League mid-winter break are once more echoing around the tinsel-festooned stadiums.
During a potentially season-defining period of five games in 15 days, merits of a winter sabbatical are a main dressing-room talking point. Players in England look on in envy at their peers in Europe's other top leagues - such as Spain, Italy, Germany and France - who have put their feet up and are lightly toasting them in front of the hearth, recharging their physical and mental batteries with their families.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini are two of the many vocal managers who want to rest their squads ahead of the second-half toil of chasing a championship crown.
England national team officials are also in favour because it has long been argued that the Three Lions perpetually do badly at international tournaments because the players are so worn out from the frenetic English season.
Willpower rather than fitness propels players through a crazy 48-hour period between Boxing Day and today's encounters. Sports medical specialists claim two days' recovery is far from enough; high-performance sportsmen need at least 72 hours to recover, they say.
There is currency in the observation that after today, the quality of the EPL takes a nosedive as players start to feel the effects of the schedule - which demands two more battles next week.