EPL LEADER ARSENAL FACES WEST HAM
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta faces a challenge that dwarfs the achievement of the club’s surge to the top of the Premier League table in the pre-World Cup portion of the campaign: How to keep the improbable run going?
The Gunners are hoping to pick up their league season where they left off six weeks ago when they welcome West Ham in the late Boxing Day fixture that will conclude a program of seven matches today.
Arsenal was the best team in the Premier League during the first half of the season and holds a five-point advantage over Manchester City but its task will be made that much harder without talisman Gabriel Jesus, who is recovering from a knee injury he picked up in Qatar while playing for Brazil.
In contrast, West Ham, which is 16th, has only just managed to stay out of the relegation zone after a slow start that included four wins from the team’s opening 15 matches, but Arteta is not taking the Hammers lightly.
“We need to do that (build momentum) on the pitch. We have talked a lot about it. We know the importance of starting strong and we play at home,” Arteta said. “It’s a very special day in Premier League history, it’s a very special family day to play football, it’s an incredible atmosphere that day and we want to make the most of it.”
He also made a point of praising his young side’s consistency during the opening 14 matches of the season, a stretch that includes victories over rivals Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea. However, sterner tests lay ahead.
“Probably the level that we showed and the consistency we showed within that level, which with the group and the age we have is not easy,” Arteta said. “We showed real maturity in certain moments, especially against big opponents.
“The focus is to play better every single day, to keep growing individually, collectively and to keep deserving to win matches. That is all we can hope because football is a very tricky game.”
While Arsenal does not resume its Europa League campaign until March, the FA Cup will begin in January and Arteta knows rotation will be key, especially after a number of his squad were involved at the World Cup in Qatar.
The Gunners are set to play six matches over the next 28 days and have a similarly busy schedule in February.
“There are going to be periods where you have time to train and other periods where matches are going to come fast and you have big congested periods,” Arteta said. “It will be very important how healthy the team is, how fit it is and how much rotation can help us to sustain the level we want.”
Deaths
Kevin Payne, who was an executive with two Major League Soccer teams and was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2021, died Sunday. He was 69. U.S. Soccer, MLS and D.C. United, which won four MLS titles and two U.S. Open Cups during Payne’s tenure, put out statements confirming his death. The Washington Post reported that Payne died in Charleston, S.C., from a lung illness. Payne was president and general manager of D.C. United and then president and CEO of the team.
UFC says former fighter Stephan Bonnar, who played a significant role in the UFC’s growth into the dominant promotion in mixed martial arts, died. The UFC Hall of Famer was 45. UFC announced in a statement that Bonnar died Thursday from “presumed heart complications while at work.” He was a contestant in 2005 on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” the UFC’s long-running reality competition show. Bonnar reached the competition’s finale, where he had a bloody brawl with Forrest Griffin. Griffin won the decision, but the viral attention gained by the bout is widely credited with exposing the little-known sport to a larger worldwide audience online and on Spike TV, which broadcast it. Bonnar hadn’t fought in the UFC since 2014.