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THE football season is not halfway through but Liverpool have already won the title when it comes to flogging Christmas gifts.
The club, famed for their You’ll Never Walk Alone anthem, are stocking 37 festive items, 15 more than their nearest rivals.
The range of goodies on the Anfield website, a whopping 23 more than last year, includes a £30 Santa jumper with hood, a £6 novelty tie and £1.50 chocolate Santas.
Middlesbrough, in second place in the gifts league, offer 22 items including a stuffed Rudolph reindeer cuddly toy for £12.99 and a £32 jumper. So far Swansea and Stoke are playing Scrooge for fans with the lowest choice of pressies – only seven each – although Burnley are yet to release their list.
Eighteen of the 20 top- flight sides are selling their own festive knitwear.
Arsenal have the most expensive, a reindeer design at £ 35, just ahead of Bournemouth’s £34.99 version.
The cheapest piece of knitwear is Hull City’s elf jumper priced at £22.
Stoke and Swansea are the only two clubs not producing a traditional team-branded Christmas jumper.
Instead, the Welsh side’s shop is stocking a Swans T-shirt for fans. A spokesman joked: “They may be expecting a heatwave in Swansea this Christmas.”
Most Premier League sides have expanded their range of merchandise this year compared with 2015.
West Brom and Man U have the same number of items as last year, 16 and 9, but Stoke (10), Sunderland (10), Bournemouth (9) and Arsenal (8) have fewer. THE GIFT TABLE: Liverpool 37, Middlesbrough 22, Man City 21, Spurs 20, West Ham 19, Everton 17, Crystal Palace 16, Leicester 16, Southampton 16, Watford 16, West Brom 16, Chelsea 11, Hull City 11, Stoke 10, Sunderland 10, Arsenal 8, Bournemouth 9, Man Utd 9, Swansea 7. Burnley to be announced.