The Warm-Up: Boxing Day magic; Big Sam's back; Moyes faces United

The relief. The release. The end of what seems like an eternity, but has only been about eight days. Hope suddenly restored or misery just piled on. Pardew out, Allardyce in. Jokes (immune from the realities of being a modern footballer at Christmas) about overindulgence the previous day! Gleefully mocking those continentals with their “winter breaks”. Hamstring strains. THE SHEER JOY. The escape.

The football gods have shown some a bit of restraint this year, however. Watford v Crystal Palace (even with added Big Sam – more on that below) is a bit of a Days of the Week Socks way to start the game’s traditional day of giving. Arsenal 3 West Brom 0, Chelsea squeaking past a tidy but inoffensive Bournemouth to secure a club record 12th win on the spin, Manchester United denying Sunderland (and David Moyes) a point late on – not too much to get your new M&S knickers in a twist over.

Perhaps Hull City, bottom of the table with one win in fifteen games, can cure your hangovers with a upset over a still Aguero-less Manchester City. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Let’s be thankful for what we get.

“The first four weeks was something that was one of the darkest moments in my career, certainly the early reaction, which was a bit hysterical to say the least, looking back on it…but eventually time passes by, you overcome those adversities and you move on. Moving on for me is taking this job.”

Who better to sum up the mundane, relentless grind of the managerial merry-go-round than Sam Allardyce? It’ll be just shy of three months since he was unceremoniously unseated from his dream job with England after just one game – in highly unusual circumstances – and yet, if he completes the task he has been hired for with Crystal Palace, that could be buried in the topsoil of recent football history.

Crystal Palace are not one of the three worst teams in the Premier League. Their form over the whole of 2016 strongly suggests otherwise but – again – this doesn’t accommodate the Allardyce Effect. A barrage of mini-dossiers awaits his players, as does the most Allardycian of elixirs: The Short Break in Dubai. Expect a big bounce.

The salvage operation (such as it is – Palace have plenty of lives left yet) begins at Watford this lunchtime. One tiny doubt lingers: does Allardyce still have it in him after that England body-blow? Can he really be bothered to turn another team around between Christmas and May?

“I did achieve the goal, the ultimate goal, the ultimate dream – even though it wasn’t long enough. I did achieve it, you can’t take that away from me.”

Well, he’s not sulking about it.

£38m seems a rather quaint figure nowadays, but it’s not a bad start to what can be a hesitant January window. Wolfsburg forward Julian Draxler, occasionally of Germany and constantly of transfer gossip columns, was confirmed on Christmas Eve to be Paris-bound.

While PSG do look well-stocked in the roles stationed behind Edinson Cavani, their current incumbents are looking shaky: Angel Di Maria is out of form and Lucas Moura is yet to consistently convince. At 23, and at that reasonable price, Draxler represents – at worst – a decent investment. Over to you, Premier League chequebooks.

Fittingly, the best – or perhaps the only – place for succulent football action on Christmas Day was Turkey*. As usual, it’s an Istanbul-based pacesetter in the Super Lig…but wait, who the devil are “Istanbul Basaksehir”? Captained by Emre Belozolgu – the old Maradona of the Bosphorus himself – they went into the weekend three points clear of the usual suspects.

One of the chasing pack, Galatasaray, put Alanyaspor to the sword on Christmas Day – with the pick of the bunch coming from Wesley Sneijder (no stranger to a transfer rumour, him) and a quite sumptuous chip.

‘Tis the season for a good #narrative, and there will be plenty on display at Old Trafford. Today, David Moyes is back there for the first time since his short, dismal reign ended in 2014. And so, in timely manner, is the Guardian’s Jamie Jackson’s account of the former Manchester United manager’s last hours in charge. There are no juicy revelations here, just naked misery.

It’s the big one in Belfast today, meanwhile. Linfield take on Glentoran on Boxing Day, as they always do, but (according to the weather forecasts, at least) there will be no repeat of the high farce of 1995. Heavy snow meant the hasty sourcing of the much-loved orange ball for their derby at the Oval.

Crucially, that was the only one they had lying around.

And then it burst.

Cue the best spot-the-ball competition in football history.

No fewer than 8 (EIGHT) Premier League games today – an absolute feast, if you still have room. Against Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea are looking to extend that streak of invincibility to 12 (TWELVE) matches and, in the process, give themselves a temporary lead of 9 (NINE) points at the top. Pass the Cherries, please, I’m feeling peckish.