Alan Shearer Exclusive: Newcastle's statement week, plus what it was like to be a player at Christmas | OneFootball

Alan Shearer

Shearer recalls the good and the bad of being a footballer over the Christmas period

Alan Shearer sits down with Betfair to talk Newcastle, Liverpool and the first half of the Premier League season, before indulging in his memories of being a professional footballer during the festive period...

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It's been a really positive week for Newcastle, four against Leicester, three against Brentford and four against Ipswich. They've now got two games against Aston Villa and Man United where they have to carry that on, that's been their issue this season.

They're in a really healthy position after their last week, they're eighth in the league, in a semi-final of the Carabao Cup, and they've got a really good home draw in the FA Cup to come.

The issue that they have had prior to the last seven days, is inconsistency. I'm hoping that it is now out of the window and they can go on a produce some more big results.

I think they have got a really good opportunity this season to make another statement. The league is really unusual this year, no one could have expected Bournemouth to be up there, no one could have predicted that Nottingham Forest would been up there and no one would have thought what's happening to Manchester City could happen.

I think it's a really good opportunity for them now to hopefully kick on, they haven't got European football, like Aston Villa and Arsenal have. I'm hoping that the inconsistency goes away and they can play some better football because it's been a really positive seven days.

Unpredictable Premier League has been incredible so far

I think this season has been a really different season so far for so many reasons. Look at Bournemouth, Forest, Chelsea, even Liverpool with their new manager. There are so many different things that have gone on and the unpredictability that we've seen up to now has been incredible.

Not so much down the bottom end, I think things are as we would have though, or certainly as I would have thought.

The gap between fourth to 12th is minimal, if you win two games back to back you can climb the table, just like Newcastle have done this week. It's amazing what six points can do for you and every club has that incentive to think if they go on a good run you never know where you can get to, then you're full of confidence and you see what happens. That's why I think it's a really important time for Newcastle.

Liverpool are top of the tree and will take some beating

Look, there's still plenty to play for. Liverpool look really impressive, I know they've conceded a few goals, two at Newcastle, two at home against Fulham and three on Sunday, but their performance against Spurs and their response was magnificent, particularly after Chelsea drawing and Arsenal winning and putting a little bit of pressure on them.

They looked really at it and a strong outfit with players that are ready to come off the bench and help their team. They're going to take some beating, definitely.

There's nothing like football during the festive period

I loved this time of year as a player, I loved just playing games. You don't train that much because of the number of games there are. It's such a great period, I loved it. I loved the games and going out there scoring goals.

It's a great time not only for players, but for fans, there's football on more or less every single day, it's amazing, I love it now too!

As a player on Christmas day it all depended on where we were, if we were at home or away and which manager we had. I had a few different ones, some got me in to train on Christmas morning, others got me in to train on Christmas afternoon and travel if we were away on Boxing Day, and some didn't make me train at all and just turn up for the game on Boxing day, that was Kenny Dalglish at Blackburn.

I had very different experiences of Christmas day as a player, but I was lucky, I could eat, within reason, what I wanted and I still used to have a glass or maybe two of something during Christmas lunch.

It's a great time to be a footballer, there are loads of matches and you're spending lots of time doing what you love out on the pitch. I loved it.

Looking back, I have good and bad memories of this period during my playing days, I seemed to always enjoy playing and scoring around this time, but I remember my first Boxing Day at Blackburn, in 1992, I scored two against Leeds and then came off with a ruptured cruciate ligament, I had 22 goals at that point and I don't think I played another league game until September.

It's probably very different nowadays, but there were Christmas parties galore when I was playing, it's very different now because of social media, but we used to do a Secret Santa, we had parties and we all went out together.

You just tried to be as normal as possible, we had a laugh in training, which you have to do, and we just tried to be the same as everyone else, albeit we had to be careful with what we ate and drank.

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