By Tim Stannard

1) Simeone bests Zidane in fierce statistical battle

A whole new squabbling front has been opened to rival that of the omnipresent but never dull at all Barcelona v Real Madrid divide: Simeone v Zizou – two tough, grizzled men who could probably give anyone a thorough sorting out should bar talk ever go over the line and a parking lot scrap were needed.

The organization responsible for these freshly-created hostilities is the reliably odd International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), and their super-computer has decided that the Atletico Madrid manager was the best coach of 2016. This is despite the fact that Real Madrid finished higher than the Rojiblancos in the league table, won the Champions League, the FIFA World Club Cup and more games in general.

2) Liverpool hope to avoid Christmas banana skin

Liverpool supporters will be a little nervous on Tuesday. None of England’s big cheeses lost in a hefty round of matches on Monday with Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and even Arsenal all picking up wins by hook or by crook. This leaves the Anfield club as the potential Christmas fall guys with the visit of Stoke City to their Merseyside home on the cards. Highlights of that clash can be seen on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.

Meanwhile, the Championship has another big day of action live on beIN SPORTS. Brighton have the chance to go top of the table after Newcastle’s shock home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on Monday. The Seagulls have an early clash against QPR down on England’s south coast. That game is followed by the very in form Derby County hosting Birmingham City, under the tutelage now of Gianfranco Zola. That game is live on beIN SPORTS at 9:55AM ET / 6:55AM PT.

 3) Bradley on brink after Monday swan dive

Bob Bradley was back in training in Swansea on Tuesday, despite calls from the stands for the American’s departure after a home defeat to West Ham left the Welsh side at the bottom of the Premier League table. Local paper, South Wales Evening Post, is reporting that a decision on the manager’s future will be made one way or another over the next 48-hours.

4) James set on summer Serie A move to Juve

The Sports Burst no-more-James-Rodriguez news promise lasted a solid 24-hours. It’s going to be a tough clickbait habit to kick. Although a January switch looks unlikely, according to the player’s uber-powerful agent, Jorge Mendes, Juventus are dead set on bringing in the titan of spare time next summer.

5) Lucas Leiva almost Inter Milan

TRANSFER NEWS! Sort of. It’s a bit slow this week with most footballers hanging out on boats this week (see below). But one deal that might well be going through is Liverpool midfielder, Lucas Leiva, joining Inter on loan for the rest of the season. The Brazilian midfielder has been at the Anfield club for a remarkable nine years but has only managed three starts for the Premier League club so far, this season.

Meanwhile the move for Carlos Tevez from Boca Juniors to Shanghai Shenhua took a step further along the path with coach, Gus Poyet, revealing that only a few small details needed to be finalized with the Argentinean forward for the transfer to go through. Tune into the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM for all the latest transfer gossip, news and general made-up stuff.

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The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.