Boxing Day football: Chelsea kick off full festive fixture programme

The Blues, who have a three-point lead over Manchester City, host fourth-placed West Ham United at 12:45 GMT.

It will be Chelsea's second match in a busy sequence of four games in 11 days.

"It doesn't matter - English or not English - the moment you are a football player in this country, I respect you a lot," said Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.

"At this moment the German guys are on the beach, the Spanish guys are in the Maldives getting sun - everybody else is doing that.

"But in this country you play on the 22nd, you play on Boxing Day, you play on the 28th, you play on New Year's Day. There is no Christmas - just football, and I think the players deserve respect.

"The supporters all around the country give them that respect because every stadium is sold out. And I think the way to do it is with the kind of professionalism my players have shown."

After the match with the Hammers, Chelsea visit Southampton on 28 December and Tottenham on 1 January, having beaten Stoke 2-0 on Monday to stay three points clear at the top.

On the continent, Spain's La Liga does not restart after Christmas until 3 January, while Germany's Bundesliga is on hiatus until Friday 30 January.

"Chelsea can beat you five or six-nil on their ground," said West Ham boss Sam Allardyce.

"But we're enjoying our football this year and enjoying our Christmas a lot more than we enjoyed Christmas last year.

"We've got the two hardest games over 48 hours over Christmas - Chelsea away and Arsenal at home in the space of 48 hours is a big demand for us, even though we're on top of our game at the moment.

"Getting through these two games is going to be a tremendous effort for all the players selected, and hopefully they'll come through for us as they have done for most of this season."

Manchester City visit The Hawthorns to play West Bromwich Albion, with boss Manuel Pellegrini in bullish mood.

"We are not thinking about leaders Chelsea," said Pellegrini, whose team have won six successive league games. "You never win the title in December.

"We have a long five months to continue playing as well as we are doing so far and we will see at the end of the season which team has most points."

City have what seems on paper to be the more attractive festive fixtures of the top two, with the trip to West Brom followed by home matches with Burnley (28 December) and Sunderland (1 January).

Third-placed Manchester United are at home to Newcastle United.

Bottom club Leicester City welcome Tottenham Hotspur while Hull City go in search of a first win since 4 October when they travel to Sunderland.

(BBC)