When European football takes a break, In England there is a festival full of games between Christmas and New Yeara congested time in which trophy dreams and the risk of indigestion intersect for the heavyweights Premier League.
From Newcastle-Chelsea for the first category of English football this Saturday to Liverpool-Barnsley for the English Cup on January 12th, the ball will only rest on six days out of twenty-four: December 24th, 25th, 29th and 31st, and January 2nd and 5th.
There will be no games on these days, but this does not mean a break for the players. Accordingly The sun, The Arsenal team are due to train on Christmas morningso as not to lose the rhythm. The time will be particularly sensitive for the current Premier League leaders and is already putting their coach Mikel Arteta at a crossroads between the health of the players and sporting ambitions.
In 23 days, from December 20 to January 11, his Gunners face seven games, almost one every three days: two in the Cup and five in the Premier, with duels against Aston Villa and Liverpool before and after New Year.
This dizzying succession comes at a bad time for Arsenal. He has several injuries (Gabriel Magalhães, Cristhian Mosquera, Kai Havertz) and his recent performances certainly do not invite optimism. Still, Arteta is making a virtue of necessity as he enters the season of “celebratory events,” as they are known in England.
“It demands a lot from you, but I see it as an opportunity. I think we are lucky that we can play while people are on vacation, many families can enjoy it. The atmosphere in the stadium is unique and we have to take advantage of that,” he explained this Friday.
From this weekend onwards, Arsenal (36 points) will have a lot of work to do to defend their lead. It begins with a visit this Saturday evening to Everton, a few hours after the game in which their first rivals, Manchester City (34), play at home against West Ham United. At this critical stage, the London team can at least be happy that, unlike other English clubs, they do not have any players affected by the Africa Cup of Nations (December 21st to January 18th).
A lackluster Boxing Day
Manchester UnitedFor example, he loses three potential starters in Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui. The same applies to Burnley (Tuanzebe, Foster, Mejbri) and Fulham (Iwobi, Chukwueze and Bassey). Sunderland are the worst affected clubas six international players have departed for Morocco, host of the African tournament, including Congolese midfielder Noah Sadiki and Mozambican defender Reinildo Mandava. It will be a big challenge for French technical director Régis Le Bris, the man who is doing wonders for the Black Cats. The promoted team and 8th in the Premier League will open the English winter sprint this Saturday at the home of Brighton & Hove, a direct rival for qualification for one of Europe’s continental competitions.
In addition to the domestic cups, 40 Premier League games will take place in just 16 days. Amid the hectic agenda, an anomaly: There will only be one game on Boxing Dayas traditionally all teams play on December 26th. The English league has preferred to schedule seven games for the next day, Saturday, and the final two for Sunday, mainly to accommodate television preferences.
The only Boxing Day duel between Manchester United and Newcastle starts at 8 p.m. (local time), certainly not a gift for away fans.
AFP
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