Research finds Burnley face most gruelling festive schedule, ahead of Newcastle United & Man Utd

The Christmas period is often a key time for clubs in the top flight as the relentless run of fixtures often defines the rest of their season.

Vincent Kompany’s men will be out to put a run of results together to reduce the gap to safety, which now stands at six points following their 2-0 defeat to Everton at the weekend.

The Clarets head to the capital this weekend to face Fulham before facing back-to-back games against potential title challengers, in Liverpool and Aston Villa, before the year is up.

Ahead of the traditional Christmas and New Year period, sports equipment retailer Net World Sports have determined the teams with the most gruelling festive schedule by calculating the distance each team has to travel and how much time they have between fixtures.

Their methodology sees each side’s distance divided by the time between their first and last festive game and multiplied the result by two to get a weighted score.

Burnley sit top of the table, ahead of Newcastle United and Manchester United. West Ham sit bottom.

Manchester City and Brentford are not included as they only play two games over Christmas.

With two away trips to Fulham and Aston Villa, Burnley fans have to travel 726 miles in just seven days making theirs the hardest Christmas run in.

Fans of their relegation rivals Sheffield United and Luton Town have to travel 74 and 254 miles respectively.

While Newcastle United supporters have further to travel than Burnley (856 miles), their three games are spread out over nine days rather than seven.

Jurgen Klopp, often outspoken about fixture congestion at this time of year, will have reason to be cheerful as Liverpool fans have one of the most forgiving run of fixtures.

The Reds only have to travel 102 miles in just over nine days compared to top-four rivals Aston Villa (362) and Arsenal (442).

With the Premier League controversially scheduling the first fixture on Christmas Eve for 28 years, Chelsea fans face an intense festive period with three games being played out over just six days.