But Christmas is a time for optimism and there’s no more hopeful a person than your average punter.

It’s also a time for giving – so with that creaky festive link wafting in the breeze let’s look at what the football world wants from Santa this year:

Chelsea – three points and a new manager obviously. It’s easy to poke fun at the fallen champions so let’s do that to kick off

Eden Hazard/Cesc Fabregas/Diego Costa etc one way tickets home for their twin brothers who seem to have been playing this season

Leicester City – a BT outage in the Midlands. Let’s hope they don’t cash in their assets to “bigger” rivals when the agents come calling in the next transfer window

Roy Hodgson – a time machine to go back in the day when Wayne Rooney at least pretended to be a threat on the world stage

Louis Van Gaal – the attacking half of the  Man United coaching manual

Arsenal – the Premier League title. Barcelona will dump them out of Europe and it’s their best chance in years. Surely they can’t mess up this time?

Aston Villa – a miracle

Betting Spy – a winner to send us off on our annual break

And on that note let’s turn to Spurs to get the festive punting season off to a flying start.

Tottenham are away at Southampton and look a very tempting 7/4 to come away with all three points.

The Saints are struggling to score and Spurs don’t let in many which points to only one result.

Have a great Christmas and here’s to bashing the bookies in 2016.

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Running total of all bets to a £10 stake for 2015/16 season:  £-14.00