In these credit crunch times you’d be hard pushed to find much sympathy for the modern-day multi-millionaire Premier League footballer.

But if there’s one day of the year you might reconsider, it’s Christmas Day.

While most of us are tucking into seconds, maybe even thirds, of our turkey and all the trimmings, spare a thought for the players as they report for training to prepare for their Boxing Day fixtures.

That’s before you even consider the constant calorie counting.

But while the players at Wolves and Albion will be working up a sweat, their neighbours down the road at Villa have been handed a real festive treat: December 25 off.

With Villa’s trip to Arsenal switched to December 27 for Sky TV coverage, it means the claret and blue players can look forward to a rare Christmas Day entirely with their families.

As a doting dad, defender Stephen Warnock admits it comes as a welcome bonus – but it will not mean he’ll be over-doing it on the mince pies.

“It will be lovely,” said Warnock, a summer signing from Blackburn.

“A couple of years ago at Blackburn we played on the 27th against Man City and we got Christmas Day off then, so it’s a nice touch, especially having kids as you get to enjoy the day.

“It’s more the food that you’ve got to be careful of.

“You’re watching everybody else scoffing away – eating what they eat on Christmas Day and you’ve got to put the reins on, hold yourself back and just stop yourself going overboard.

“I’ll definitely be watching what I’m eating anyway.

“I’ll be having more than just dry pasta, but I’ll be having smaller portions of Christmas dinner than everybody else while my wife and kids go for it!

“I tell them to just enjoy themselves, they’re not the footballers so they can do what they want as long as they enjoy the day.”

Not that Warnock expects any sympathy – he is well aware of the privileged position professional players find themselves in.

“It’s a small price to pay to be making those sacrifices,” he continued.

“You’re used to it. You have to watch what you’re eating every day, all the time. So we know you can’t eat and drink what you want all the time.

“That’s why, come the summer, you can relax a bit more.

“That’s our time off and we enjoy it but over the Christmas period we’re probably the busiest people around the country doing what everyone wants to do.

“We realise that everyone wants to be a footballer and we’ve got the pleasure of doing it.

“I think the manager understands that we are sensible enough and that we know what’s at stake in the games.

“You’re not exactly going to go out and stuff yourself the day before Arsenal and get the run-around, are you?”

Warnock might be determined to avoid the run-around, but one thing the left-back won’t be able to prevent is switching around, with Arsenal’s midfield just as flexible and versatile as Villa’s.

“They’ve got (Theo) Walcott, who came on in the last game, Samir Nasri who can switch there. Then there’s (Andrei) Arshavin.

“They’re going to be swapping all over the place. But we’ve got the same versatility ourselves.

“We’ve got Ashley (Young) and Stewart (Downing) who are moving from wing to wing every two minutes and defenders are wondering what’s going on.

“Then you’ve got James (Milner) who can pull out there and make it hard for people to read where he’s going.

“I think people are looking at us now and saying we have got the flexibility to beat people, just as Arsenal have had the flexibility for the last few seasons.”