Boxing Day, which falls on December 26 every year, the day after Christmas or the first working day after Christmas, is a holiday celebrated in all parts of the Commonwealth.
As a public holiday, England has been accustomed to arranging various sports activities on Boxing Day since ancient times.
Therefore, the Premier League, which does not have a winter break, also has games on this day. It can even be said that the Football Association specially arranged the games on this day.
In order to allow fans to watch the game as close as possible during the holiday, most of the Premier League matches scheduled on Boxing Day are played between the two teams that are geographically closest to each other.
Of course, on such a day of celebration, it is absolutely impossible to have such hot derby matches as the Manchester derby, the Merseyside derby and the North London derby.
A cheerful festive atmosphere.
On Boxing Day this year, the Football Association has also prepared 8 games for the public, which will start at the same time in the afternoon of the holiday.
And these 16 teams are almost all from the upper reaches of the Premier League standings against teams from the lower reaches.
Although the 16 teams fighting against each other appear to be clearly strong and weak, it can be said that there are endless upsets on Boxing Day match days over the years.
Manchester City's opponent in this round is Hull City, this year's newly promoted team.
Compared with some established teams in the Premier League, Hull City is a rising star. It was established late in 1904 and its home stadium is the Kingston Communications Stadium.
Because he wears a yellow and black jersey, he is also called Chaige Tiger!
This is a team with no honors and no touching legendary stories. It is ordinary and ordinary.
There is generally no information to be found on Wikipedia and BD Encyclopedia.
This summer, after Hull City was promoted to the Premier League, they spent less than 10 million to buy four players to supplement their lineup.
It is in line with people's perception of newly promoted teams. It looks like they came to the Premier League to see the scenery and receive a generous relegation fund next year.
And with such little investment in the transfer market, their current miserable record is doomed.
Just like when they started in the Championship and League One, Hull City brought their tradition of starting fiercely and then quickly gaining ground to the Premier League.
Now that 17 rounds of the Premier League have passed, Hull City's record is 3 wins, 3 draws and 11 losses, with 12 points, ranking second from the bottom in the Premier League standings.
In 17 Premier League games, he scored 14 goals but conceded 39 goals. He is the well-deserved number one in the Premier League.
Therefore, playing against such a relegation team, Manchester City has almost no possibility of losing.
As for whether it will be an upset, only God knows.
If you want to achieve an upset, you also need a certain level of strength, but in the case of Hull City, the media and fans did not see this factor of strength.
Manchester City and Hull City are the same city apart from their names, but in other respects they are worlds apart.
It is 16:45 pm London time, half an hour before the start of the game.
The players have not yet taken the field, but the Kingston Communications Stadium, which is drizzling with drizzle, is full of people and the seats are full.
Although Kingston can only accommodate more than 25,000 fans, the atmosphere at the venue today was particularly lively.
It is Boxing Day, and Hull City fans hope that the team can win. This is the best holiday gift for them.
In the visiting team's locker room, the atmosphere in Manchester City's pre-match atmosphere was relatively relaxed.
The players sat together in twos and threes, talking and laughing about their respective holidays.
After the 17th round of the Premier League, Guardiola gave all Manchester City players two days of Christmas vacation, the 24th and 25th.
Chu Zheng and Zhao Dudu also went to Paris, the romantic capital of France, to have a wander, and spent two days without any shame or expense.
At 17:15, the game officially started.
In this game, although Hull City is recognized as one of the two weakest teams in the Premier League, Guardiola did not underestimate the opponent.
Therefore, Manchester City played all their main players, and their lineup was almost the same as that against Arsenal in the previous round.
The result did not go beyond the expectations of the media and fans. Manchester City completely defeated Hull City at the beginning of the game, proving to people that in the face of absolute strength, home field advantage and home atmosphere are all negligible factors.
In the 4th minute of the opening, Chu Zheng made continuous breakthroughs in the frontcourt, causing a foul by a Hull City player, allowing Manchester City to get a free kick in an excellent position at the top of the arc.
De Bruyne took the penalty and succeeded in one fell swoop. The beautiful arc and accuracy of the free kick made Chu Zheng salivate.
During two days of traveling in France, Chu Zheng and Zhao Dudu accidentally bumped into De Bruyne and Michel, who were also living together in France, and witnessed the idiot De Bruyne under the Eiffel Tower in France.
That proposal without any surprise at all.
De Bruyne is really in high spirits during happy events, and he is even in such a hot state.
However, Chu Zheng did not expect that this was just the beginning.
Just three minutes later, Sterling took the ball from the wing and crossed to the front of the penalty area. De Bruyne took the ball and cut inside to the left before taking a shot.
As a result, the ball suddenly changed line when it hit the defensive player, dodged the fingers of Hull City goalkeeper David Marshall, and scored again.
In less than ten minutes, De Bruyne scored twice, and his form was so explosive that Chu Zheng even wanted to propose to his wife to stimulate his competitive state.
Perhaps it was because they gained an absolute lead too early that Manchester City, including Chu Zheng, felt a little relaxed.
As a result, Hull City took the opportunity to steal a goal and got a goal back through a cross from the wing.
The two sides entered the halftime break with a score of 2-1.
At halftime, Guardiola used an unprecedented tone in the locker room, making all Manchester City players including Chu Zheng bloody.
In Chu Zheng's words, this Spanish bald man wants to eat people!
In the second half, all Manchester City players, who were awakened by Guardiola, once again showed their sharp fangs towards Hull City.
In the 49th minute of the game, Manchester City's half-time circle was on the right rib. Otamendi took off and headed the ball back. Yaya Toure turned the ball around, used his strong physical fitness to trap the Hull City player behind him, and then dribbled the ball over.
From the center line, he sent a precise direct pass forward.
Chu Zheng picked up the ball in front of the 30-meter area in the middle and turned around. When he reached the top of the arc, he directly fired a heavy shot.
Unfortunately, the angle was too direct and was blocked by the goalkeeper.
But the east is not bright and the west is bright. Because Chu Zheng's shot was too powerful, David Marshall took it away, allowing De Bruyne who was right in front of him to pick it up and score a hat trick.
Chu Zheng was speechless about De Bruyne's luck after his successful proposal.
3-1! A two-goal lead is not safe enough for Manchester City, which has a poor defense.
Under the shouts from the coaching area on the sidelines, Manchester City continued to attack fiercely, and Hull City could not pass the half-time in the next ten minutes.
Manchester City used practical actions to perfectly demonstrate what half-court offense and defense are.
In the 62nd minute of the game, Chu Zheng finally opened the scoring.
De Bruyne returned the favor, using his highly concealed through ball to penetrate Hull City's Championship-level defense.
Chu Zheng, who advanced in time from the middle, got a single shot.
Facing the attacking goalkeeper, Chu Zheng caught up with the ball and fired a calm and calm shot, scoring his 12th goal of the season.
4-1, the suspense of the game ended, Hull City's spirit was kicked away.
Shortly after the game ended, the results of the remaining seven games were also released.
There were no upsets in this year's Boxing Day event, and everyone who deserved to win was won.
Arsenal faced West Brom at home. Although the process was a bit difficult, they won 1-0 in the end.
Chelsea beat Bournemouth 3-0 at home.
Manchester United beat Sunderland 3-1 at home.
Liverpool 4-1 even devastated Stoke City.
Even Tottenham, who played away from home, defeated Southampton, which is known for its solid defense this season, 4-1.
Although Manchester City did not regain the top spot in the Premier League from Chelsea, countless Manchester City fans posted on their personal social platforms that this game was the best holiday gift the club gave them.
