A Premier League shirt is designed to be worn over something. That sounds like a small detail until December, when the same shirt is being worn over a base layer, under a coat, in the rain, at a match that kicks off at half past seven. The cut is generous through the chest and the shoulder because the season demands it.

Compare it with a Serie A shirt and the difference is immediate — the Italian cut is noticeably closer to the body. If you are used to one and order the other in your usual size, you will feel it. If you want the shirt to fit like clothing rather than like kit, your normal size is right here.

Until the early nineties, English shirts were numbered one to eleven by position on the day. Then the league moved to fixed squad numbers, and within a couple of seasons you had players wearing 16, 23, 33 and eventually 47 and 66 — a number that belongs to the player rather than to a role on the pitch.

This matters when you print a name set. A 7 or a 9 is a statement about the shirt. A 41 is a statement about the person. If you are buying for someone who follows one player rather than one club, print his number and it will still make sense in three years.

Unlike Germany, England plays straight through the winter. The fixture list compresses hard over the Christmas period, which is why the league feels relentless from the inside and why the shirts get more wear per season than anywhere else in Europe.

The season ends with every match kicking off at the same time on the final day. The title, the European places and the bottom three can all still be open at three o'clock. It is the single best afternoon in the calendar, and it is also the reason a shirt bought in August has been through a lot by the time May arrives.

If you know the club, buy the home shirt in your normal size and do not overthink the season. It will be red, or blue, or white with a coloured sleeve, and it will read correctly anywhere in the world. Home designs are the ones that get worn.

If you know the player more than the club, print his number on whatever shirt he actually plays in. That is the version people keep after he leaves. And if you are buying for someone else and cannot ask, this is the league to guess in — the clubs are globally known and a size up is never wrong.