New Year brings a frantic period for the sports desk to a close, not that we are complaining

The growing influence of television broadcasting means that there will be nearly 10 hours of non-stop football on New Year’s Day

The football fixtures pile up over a hectic Christmas period (Getty)

The festive Premier League fixture list comes to a close with a bumper New Year’s Day programme as nine games wrap up what has felt like non-stop football action over the past two weeks.

At The Independent, that’s certainly how it feels as our team of reporters find themselves more under the kosh than any other time throughout the year, slogging their way through three full rounds of matches just like the players do.

The workload takes its toll on the mind as well as the legs, with the team cautious not to overdo it with Christmas lunch in the knowledge that a Boxing Day crammed full of football follows – or at least that’s the plan...

The same applies for the New Year’s Day schedule, and while the nation parties the night away and sore heads are soothed the following morning, our sports writers are already dreaming of the perfect introduction to Arsenal’s latest defeat against Manchester United, or David Moyes’s second first game as West Ham boss, all in the hope that the Premier League coverage we bring you today is the perfect hangover remedy.

The growing influence of television broadcasting means that there will be nearly 10 hours of non-stop football on New Year’s Day, on top of the World Darts Championship final and the latest from South Africa, where England’s cricketers are preparing for their second Test on Friday morning.

That means there’s all the more for our team to ensure they are across, allowing readers to soak up four consecutive bouts of games from the comfort of their bedrooms, should the prospect of getting up to tackle the new year prove daunting enough to delay it for an extra day.

Once the final whistle goes in the night-time kick-off at the Emirates Stadium, and both Mikel Arteta and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer have had their say on how the latest mid-table duel played out, The Independent’s sports desk will retire for the night, another job well done through the gruelling Christmas period.

This job is a privileged one, reporting on the sanctuary that is the sporting world, but it costs editors, reporters, writers and sub-editors precious time with their loved ones, especially across the festive period. So allow myself to indulge our team for a moment to thank each and every one of them who has made our 2019 coverage the success that it has been, and thank you, the reader, for joining us throughout the year, the decade or perhaps even longer. Here’s to that relationship continuing long into the new year.

Yours,

Jack de Menezes

Deputy sports editor