Almost a month and a half after the last game on November 13, the Premier League which resumes its routine after the Qatar 2022 World Cup with the start of the sixteenth day, that of Saint Stephen.
Contrary to previous years, accustomed to the dominance of Manchester City or Liverpool, Arsenal are the dominant team in the English table with five points ahead of Spain’s Pep Guardiola’s City, seven over the surprising Newcastle and eight over Tottenham, occupying the top four locations. Outside the Champions League area, for now, Manchester United and Liverpool, victims of their weak first third of the season.
Deal with competitive intensity the Premier League at the end of 2022. Speed up English football to make up for dates after six weeks of the World Cup. Therefore, from There will be meetings every day on Monday 26th and until next January 5th, except on December 29th. That is to say, in ten days the English championship will run out of three days to close the first leg.
True to tradition, the reunion with routine coincides with the staging of what is known as boxing day, a UK-wide football festival which leads to sold out stadiums.
Get the ball rolling in London, at the Brentford Community Stadium with the local duel against Tottenham. Antonio Conte’s team resume the competition from fourth place and after signing a slight recovery in the last game after beating Leeds after losing three of the previous four games. Thomas Frank’s home team, meanwhile, is placed in the center of the table.
The match between Brentford and Tottenham opens the sixteenth round. It will kick off at 13:30 CET (12:30 local time) just before most of Monday’s games are played: Crystal Palace v Fulham, Everton v Wolverhampton, Leicester v Newcastle and Southampton v Brighton & Hove.
Julen Lopetegui makes his Premier League debut. After taking the reins on the bench for Wolverhampton in the League Cup last Tuesday, with a win against Gillingham, he broke into the league with a visit to Liverpool to take on Everton. Bottom of the table, `wolves` haven’t added the three points in this competition since last October 15, when they beat Nottingham Forest. Four defeats and a draw sum up their recent run.
Goodison Park is a key clash as Frank Lampard’s Everton secure safety with just one rental point from third bottom Nottingham Forest.
At Selhurst Park another London derby, between Crystal Palace and Fulham. The league parked the set of Patrick Viera with an unthinkable setback against Nottingham Forest ending a two-game winning streak that left the team mid-table. With the same points, albeit two places ahead, is Marco Silva’s Fulham, who arrived at the break after accumulating a draw and two consecutive defeats.
The arrival of the World Cup stopped the extraordinary journey of Newcastle, the revelation team of the field. The Magpies have amassed six wins in a row. Now Eddie Howe’s team resumes the tournament with a visit to the King Power Stadium where Leicester awaits, recovered from the bad start and far from the relegation zone. He has two wins in a row.
With new expectations, Southampton face the return of the Premier League, penultimate in the table which, with the brand new Nathan Jones on the bench after replacing Ralph Hasenhuttl, hosts Brighton and Hove at St.Mary`s.
LThe staging of Liverpool, rivals of Real Madrid in the Champions League, arrives later at 6.30pm in Birmingham against Unai Emery’s Aston Villa. After being knocked out of the League Cup by Manchester City last Thursday, albeit with clear signs of improvement, Jurgen Klopp’s side need to extend the good line they left the tournament on, with two consecutive wins, to position themselves among the top four, in the Champions League area, once the difficulty of aiming for the title has been assumed.
Emery’s team came out of the bottom half with wins against Manchester United and Brighton and intends to keep the recovery on the return.
The leader comes into action at the last minute, at the end of Monday, at 21:00. Receive West Ham at the Emirates. Another duel between two London teams. With just two setbacks, a draw and a loss, in their first fourteen games, Mikel Arteta’s team emerged as candidates. He signed his best start in the Premier League and are leaders on Boxing Day for the first time in fifteen years.
Without the Brazilian Gabriel Jesus, who was injured in Qatar 2022, Arsenal calibrates the crisis of West Ham, which drags on three defeats in a row and is one step away from relegation places.
The sixteenth day of the Premier League continues on Tuesday with two clashes. At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea intend to get out of the crisis with which they closed the pre-World Cup cycle.
Five games without a win, with just two points out of fifteen on the line, have removed Graham Potter’s side from the top places in the Premier League. He is eighth. Eight points behind the top four places. He hosts Bournemouth who came out of the doldrums with victory against Everton after four successive defeats, but lost again in the League Cup on Wednesday to Newcastle.
Manchester United, meanwhile, receives Nottingham Forest who scores relegation despite showing some recovery in recent games. Erik Ten Haag’s painting was erratic. Without Cristiano Ronaldo in the squad, he awaits an apparently accessible commitment at Old Trafford to start his return to the course in the best possible way. Europa League rival Barcelona are fifth, three points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, who have a game to spare.
The appointment is completed on Wednesday with the visit of the reigning champion to Elland Road. Strengthened by the good return to competition with the victory against Liverpool in the League Cup at a high level of play, Guardiola’s team intends to put up with the defeat against Brentford in the last league match which distanced them by five points from Arsenal leadership.
The city is measured in Leeds. Jesse Marsch’s side have a narrow margin for error, pressed from the relegation zone, from which they are separated by just two points.
Hours Boxing Day Premier League
— Sixteenth day
Brentford-Tottenham (13.30)
Crystal Palace-Fulham (16.00)
Everton v Wolverhampton (16.00)
Leicester-Newcastle (16.00)
Southampton-Brighton (16.00)
Aston Villa-Liverpool (18.30)
Arsenal-West Ham (21.00)
🇧🇷 Mars
Chelsea-Bournemouth (18.30)
Manchester United-Nottingham Forest (21.00)
. Wednesday
Leeds-Manchester City (21.00).
