Here are all of the Premier League programme covers for the games played on the weekend of 21st and 22nd December 2019. There were only nine fixtures this weekend, due to Liverpool’s participation in the Club World Cup resulting in the postponement of their scheduled fixture against West Ham United.
The most notable cover of the weekend was that produced by Norwich City as they paid tribute to former manager Ron Saunders. Although generally better known for his time in charge of Aston Villa, Saunders was the man who took the Canaries to the top-flight for the first time in the early 1970’s, having won the Division Two title in the 1971/72 season. Saunders steered Norwich to safety in the 1972/73 season and also took the club to the League Cup final. The programme cover was in the same style as that produced for the visit of Arsenal, which marked the passing in October of Duncan Forbes – Saunders’ captain in that Division Two triumph 47 years ago. With the sad passing at the weekend of former Norwich midfielder Martin Peters – arguably the club’s greatest ever player – the Canaries may pay tribute in a similar way for the visit of Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
Elsewhere there were a couple of musical references, with Manchester City using a picture of the Gallagher brothers on their cover for the visit of Leicester City, and Watford referencing this classic New Wave track from XTC!