24/25 Match Week 17 Recap & 18 Preview

Salzburg, Boxing Day & Peanuts

Author

nick lochner
December 24, 2024

Have a Blessed CHRISTMAS!

Friday’s Clean Sheet will come SATURDAY December 28.

In Today’s CleanSheet:

  • Headlines 📌

  • Current Situation📈📉

  • Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- Boxing Day

  • Off Island 🏝️ - Christmas Movies

  • Best Bets 💰

Headlines 📌

Match Week 17 Recap

  • CS Match of the Week. Everton 0-0 Chelsea.

    • Everton have kept a clean sheet in 5 of their last 6 matches, 4 of those were 0-0 draws. Time to recognize the defensive excellence.

    • Chelsea lost in MW1 to City 0-2 and had scored in every match since.

    • While Chelsea had more possession (66%), and more shots overall, shots on goal were even.

    • While there are not goal highlights to link to, 0-0 draws can be like a pitchers duel in MLB. The dropped points by Chelsea and the point for Everton all are important in the table standings.

  • Injured Gunner. Bukayo Saka will miss over a month at least with a new hamstring injury. That could be a big loss as the Gunner’s try to keep pace in the PL.

  • Since November. City sit LAST in the EPL since November 1.

What 2 Look 4 👀- Match Week 18

BOXING DAY Matches - December 26/27

  • 8.2 Boxing Day Matches. 8 Thursday, 2 Friday.

Match of Boxing Day 1️⃣

Must Watch 🅰️

  • Forest +135 v Tottenham +175 THU 9a - Can’t stop wondering which Spurs side shows up, and they are fun to watch. Tree’s have been GREAT against great competition. Really interested to see which Spurs side shows up.

Mismatch 🎽🎽👖👖

  • Liverpool -1205 v Leicester City +1975 THU 2p - Mismatch.

  • Arsenal -699 v Ipswich Town +1800 FRI 215p - Gunners must get all three points, even without Saka.

  • Man City -300 v Everton +800 THU 630a - Another 0-0 outcome? Both sides struggling to score.

  • Chelsea -210 v Fulham +500 THU 9a - West London Derby - Both sides coming off 0-0 draws, expect goals.

Solid Toss Ups 🥗🥗🥗🥗🥗

  • Newcastle -110 v Aston Villa +270 THU 9a - Two sides pushing to keep Europe in sight.

  • Southampton +230 v West Ham +115 THU 9a - New manager bounce could help the Saints in front of the home crowd.

  • Bournemouth -110 v Palace +280 THU 9a - Cherries continue to surprise and push for Europe, Palace momentum has stalled with back to backs against Arsenal.

  • BHA -150 v Brentford +360 FRI 130p - Bee’s struggle on the road, BHA has been struggling home and away.

  • Wolves +270 v Man United -110 THU 1130a - Will Wolves keep the new manager bounce going, can Amorim get a result?

Current Situation 📈📉

  • Good weekend for Liverpool - gaining 2 points on Chelsea, seeing City drop and getting 3 points on 6 goals in North London.

  • Forest continue to surprise - winning where no one has to date and putting space between them and the fifth-place side. Europe is a real possibility.

  • Seem to be 4 groups of teams at the moment.

    • Contenders - Top 4

    • Good, each with their own issues - places 6-13

    • Meh, places 14-16

    • Relegation Contenders, places 17-20

CleanSheets Counter & Goal Tracker

MW174 Clean Sheets

8

  • Newcastle, Forest, Bournemouth, Everton, Chelsea, Wolves, Fulham and Southampton with Clean Sheets.

  • Most CSs in a Match Week this season and just the second in 2 years.

  • Everton have kept 5 clean sheets in their last 6 matches.

MW17 Total Goals

32

  • Another MW over 30 goals and this one with two goalless matches.

  • With 6 goals for Liverpool they match the 6 goals Chelsea scored at Wolves for most a team has scored in a match

  • 9 goals is the most scored in a match this season, Liverpool at Spurs.

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

Boxing Day

December 26.

1958 - The year a full slate of matches started on Boxing Day in the Premier League.

  • The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest description from Britain in 1743, defining it as "the day after Christmas day", and saying "traditionally on this day tradespeople, employees, etc., would receive presents or gratuities (a "Christmas box") from their customers or employers.”

  • It has traditionally been a day people gave to those in need.

  • Today, it has become a day like “Black Friday” where businesses have big sales.

  • Many countries recognize boxing day - UK, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Nigeria, Singapore, etc.

Off Island 🏝️

Ranking Christmas Movies/Shows

It’s that time of year….CS ranks the best Christmas movies of all time. Merry Christmas!

#1 It’s A Wonderful Life.

Great story telling from Frank Capra, acting from Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, it’s actually kinda funny the poster promoting this film is in color as the movie is in black and white. Don’t let its age foll you, while it’s not a CGI action flick this movie is not just best Christmas Movies ever, but one of the best movies of all time.

1947

#2 A Charlie Brown Christmas.

In 1965 the popular Comic Strip Peanuts was on the cover of TIME Magazine and Coca Cola Ad Agency got the idea of doing a Holiday Special and took the idea to Lee Mendelson, who liked to them by saying he and Schulz were already talking about this. He called Shulz and said he needed to write it tomorrow. Schultz, Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez cranked out the story, which was approved and accepted if they could produce the whole thing in 6 months. Vince Guaraldi was added for music along with a children’s choir from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Coca-Cola had bankrolled the program, and it was already being advertised before CBS saw it, and when they saw it they thought they were “doomed”. There was talk about removing Linus’ reciting of the book of Luke, but Schulz insisted.

1965

On December 9, 1965 over half of all televisions had A Charlie Brown Christmas on. The show won a Peabody and an Emmy and since then over 50 “Peanuts” programs were made, mostly for CBS.

#3 How the Grinch Stole Christmas. (2000)

#4 The Santa Clause (1994)

#5 How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

#6 Elf (2003)

#7 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

#8 Die Hard (1988) - Yes, it is.

#9 Christmas Vacation (1989)

#10 Santa Clause Is Coming To Town (1970)

2000

Not deserving - Home Alone, The Polar Express, A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas.

The best movie to watch around Christmas that is not a Christmas Movie

The Sound of Music

Set in 1938 Salzburg, the threat of Hitler and the Nazi’s was all around Austria. Retired naval officer Captain Georg von Trapp brings in a new governess to look over his seven children.

Based on a true story, the movie storyline was created off Maria von Trapp’s memoir, published in 1949. The film rights were purchased for $9,000 (roughly $100k in today’s dollars).

At its time the movie was the highest grossing film of all time (close to $300M - a huge number for that day) and won 5 Academy Awards including best picture.

1965

The movie first premiered on television in the United States in 1976 on ABC, then for 20 of 22 years on NBC, then back to ABC where it has been shown every year in December.

Love the movie and traveling to Austria - you can take the official Sound of Music tour.

Best Bets 💰

Match Week 17 Results

Match Week 18 - Quick Turn Around

Everton to Win or Draw at Man City +214. $20

Can we see another 0-0 draw?

Chelsea Fulham O3.5 goals +108. $50

Chelsea Fulham O4.5 bookings +106. $50

Both sides didn’t score last time out, they will this time, and be aggressive.

Liverpool Leicester City O4.5 goals +118. $50

Liverpool Leicester City 1H will be higher scoring than 2H +200. $10

This is a bet on Bee’s home record, and while Newcastle had a nice goal outburst home to Liverpool, I’m not convinced they are going to continue that scoring.

Tottenham to Win at Forest +176. $20

Makes no sense that Spurs would win against a hot team on the road, but Spurs seem to play well on occasion so give me the plus.

Big Swings

  • Everton City to finish 0-0 +1840. $10

  • Wolves, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal +1113. $10

  • Southampton, Newcastle +500. $10

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