Liverpool’s trip to Arsenal will no longer face the threat of a Christmas Eve date.
The Premier League and Sky Sports had planned on pushing back the Reds’ game at the Emirates Stadium by 24 hours for the first time since 1995.
Fans of both clubs opposed the prospective fixture change while the Gunners also faced logistical issues with a lack of match day staff willing to work the game.
Swansea’s visit to Anfield on December 26 would also have to be rescheduled in the event that Liverpool were forced to play in the capital on Christmas Eve.
But Jurgen Klopp’s side are now due to kick off on the eve of their original fixture with a revised date expected to be pencilled in for a 7.45pm kick-off on Friday, December 22 instead.
Klopp had been highly outspoken on Liverpool facing a potential Christmas Eve game when the threat originally surfaced at the end of last month.
But the club’s chief executive Peter Moore has welcomed the Premier League’s decision to shelve its plans for a Christmas Eve fixture.
He said: “First and foremost, it is important to acknowledge that both the Premier League and Sky Sports have listened to the concerns that were expressed by fans and by ourselves and acted upon them.
“It is to their credit that on this occasion they have shown themselves to be flexible and have come to a decision which we feel is preferable to asking our supporters to travel to London on Christmas Eve with all of the difficulties and potential problems that such an arrangement would have entailed.
“At Liverpool, we never take our supporters for granted and while we recognise that moving the fixture to a Friday night is more desirable than the alternative, we also realise that it is not an ideal solution for those who will be undertaking a testing journey to London at a particularly busy time of year.
“For that reason, we are looking to see what we can do to help those fans who are planning to make the trip and have already entered into dialogue with supporters’ representatives, including the Liverpool Supporters Trust/Spirit Of Shankly, in order to discuss the options that are available to us.”
Another evening kick-off was confirmed in Liverpool’s plans with the Boxing Day encounter with Swansea pushed back to 5.30pm.
The 229th Merseyside derby at Anfield will now begin at 2.15pm on Sunday, December 10.