PREMIER LEAGUE RETURNS
Leaders Arsenal the team to catch after World Cup break
PREMIER League football returns on Monday following a six-week break for the Qatar World Cup.
Arsenal, who finished the first part of the season on top of the table with 37 points from 14 matches, will be looking to maintain their position having built up a five-point lead over second placed Manchester City.
However the Gunners will be without their star striker Gabriel Jesus, who is injured.
On Monday Arsenal are at home to West Ham United before travelling to Brighton & Hove Albion on New Year’s Eve.
Brighton, currently in seventh place, have a good recent record against the Gunners, losing only two of their last five league matches against them.
Arsenal then go head to head with Newcastle United on January 3, who are currently third in the table on 30 points from 15 matches and, like Arsenal, have only lost one match all season.
Manchester City have tricky trips to Leeds United on Wednesday and Chelsea on January 5, either side of a home encounter with Everton next Saturday.
Newcastle take on Leicester City on Monday and Leeds on New Year’s Eve before their trip to Arsenal.
Meanwhile, the chasing pack below the top three – Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Liverpool – will be looking to make up ground as they do not play anyone in the top nine.
Two of United's three festive matches are against teams in the bottom three – Nottingham Forest on Tuesday and Wolverhampton Wanderers on New Year's Eve.
The omens are boding well* for Arsenal, who last won the Premier League in 2004, as teams top of the table on Christmas Day have mostly gone on to win the title. In 10 of the last 13 seasons, the team on top on December 25 have gone on to lift the Premier League trophy, including Manchester City last season. However, due to the lengthy break for the first ever winter World Cup, Arsenal have played four games fewer than City had this time last year. Looking back over the last 30 years the Christmas leaders have been overtaken by season’s end 14 times. On all three occasions in the last 13 seasons when that has happened, it was City who overhauled the Christmas league leaders to become Premier League champions.
TAKING THE KNEE
Meanwhile the Premier League has announced that players will use the matches from December 26-28 as one of their “dedicated match rounds to take the knee to amplify the message that racism has no place in football or society”.
Players took the knee on the opening weekend and in October for match-weeks 10-11, which were “dedicated to the No Room For Racism campaign”, the Premier League said in a statement.
The league has also announced that players will be given more rest time between matches played across the three festive rounds.
The rest period between match-weeks 18-19 has been increased to ensure “no club play within 48 hours of another of their matches”.