IT’S the last regular Saturday before Christmas and while most of us are in the mood for shopping for presents and getting everything ready for the big day, there is the usual round of football to divert our attention.

PREMIER LEAGUE WEEKLY looks at an unlikely star, a manager under pressure and a team on the rise.

Are the green shoots starting to show at Manchester United?

MANCHESTER UNITED have just won their last three games for the first time since August. They are unbeaten in their last nine matches, in the semi-final of the EFL Cup and through to the next stage of the Europa League. While this is not what United fans were used to a few years ago under Sir Alex Ferguson, it is better than it was. There have been too many draws in the Premier League and it’s why United sit in sixth place, 13 points behind current leaders Chelsea, but there is a feeling that the Reds are starting to get a bit of confidence back.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is scoring goals again and has regained that little bit of confidence that was missing, especially when he failed to score at home to Burnley. Paul Pogba is settling in to his central midfield role after his huge summer transfer from Juventus. There has been the return of Phil Jones in central defence, with the former Blackburn player enjoying a good run of games and starting to look like he could become the first choice back there. And although he won’t be available at West Brom tomorrow because of injury, Henrikh Mkhitaryan has shown signs of real class notably in his match-winning display against Tottenham last Sunday.

With matches at home to Sunderland and Middlesbrough to follow over Christmas, Jose Mourinho will recognise the value of three points at The Hawthorns. That would allow his side the chance to create some momentum in the league heading into 2017. Whether they are too far back to mount a challenge for the Premier League is unknown, but it’s clear that Mourinho is targeting the cups. And as the team gains understanding and becomes more settled, there is every chance that United will be a team to be wary of in the New Year.

Jose Mourinho and Alan Pardew (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Is Alan Pardew running out of time at Crystal Palace?

THIS was the year when Alan Pardew might have become England manager and he could have won the FA Cup. He did neither and if he is not careful, he could end the year out of a job. That shows the sort of time it has been for Crystal Palace. Heading into 2016, Palace were fifth and flying. Pardew was being talked about as a potential future England boss and a man to succeed Roy Hodgson. Their opponents for their opening game of the year, Chelsea, were 14^th and in a deep depression. How fortunes have changed at the two clubs.

The Eagles’ record over the calendar year makes for miserable reading. They have collected just 26 points from 36 games and over a normal season, that would be relegation form. There has been one period of five straight defeats in January/February and then six losses on the spin in October and November. Is Pardew unable to stop his side when they get in a tailspin? Why do his teams suffer such bad slumps? But still, they reached the FA Cup final in May for only the second time in the club’s history. They could have hung on as well after Jason Puncheon had given them the lead. Sadly for them, United came back to win 2-1 and the overriding memory of Palace that afternoon was Pardew’s comical dance on the touchline as he celebrated his team’s goal.

This season has seen Pardew given funds to strengthen the team and it has been a curate’s egg for them. Palace have given Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United a really stern test at Selhurst Park and lost them all. They have scored two at Burnley, three at Hull and four at Swansea and taken just one point from those away games. For a team full of big defenders, their defending from set-pieces has been comical, with musical statues a common sight in the Palace box. They are only just above the relegation zone, but the feeling persists that they are too good to go down and have too much firepower.

But will Pardew’s statistics come back to haunt him? With two US investors now having a big say, are they more likely to trust the numbers or a hunch that he’s the right man for the club? Stopping Chelsea on the back of their ten-match winning run is no easy feat, but Pardew might have to do it to show he should be in charge for the long term and not just for Christmas.

Player of the Day: Victor Moses

VICTOR MOSES will return to the club where he came through the ranks tomorrow as Premier League leaders Chelsea go to Crystal Palace. It was nearly seven years ago when Moses left cash-strapped Palace for Wigan. And it’s fair to say that the last three months have been the best for Moses since his buccaneering days as a young winger in the Championship for Palace.

It’s hard to imagine that Moses has been at Chelsea since August 2012. But it’s easy to forget when he has had season-long loans at Liverpool, Stoke and West Ham during that time. For most of the last few years, he has been part of that crazy statistic about the number of Chelsea players out on loan. But not this year, and not right now.

Moses has had an incredible rise in the last three months. In the aftershock of Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat to Arsenal on September 24, Antonio Conte took the decisive step of switching from four at the back to three. Defensive stalwart Branislav Ivanovic was the main casualty and Moses came in to play as a right wing-back. It looked unusual but it has worked a treat.

It was now or never for Moses and he took his chance. He has played every league game since and Chelsea have not dropped a point. He may not have the glamour of some of the other players in the team, but while he is doing a job and the team keeps winning, there is no need for a change. Normally, Moses would be heading to the Africa Cup of Nations in January with Nigeria but the Super Eagles did not qualify, so there is nothing to disrupt his wonderful flow. Moses has just turned 26, so he is certainly not a youngster anymore, but it feels like Chelsea’s winning run has been the making of him.

Stat of the Day

3 – Three teams (Sunderland, Swansea and Hull) could be bottom of the table at Christmas. Only three previous sides, West Brom (2004), Sunderland (2013) and Leicester (2014) have been in that position in the Premier League and escaped relegation.