When European football takes a break, England has a feast of matches sprinkled between Christmas and New Year, an overloaded period in which dreams of titles and risks of indigestion intersect for the heavyweights of the Premier League.
From Newcastle-Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday to Liverpool-Barnsley in the English Cup on January 12, the ball only stops six days out of twenty-four: December 24 and 25, December 29 and 31, and January 2 and 5.
There are no games, but this does not mean that the players rest. According to The Sun, the Arsenal man is even scheduled to train on Christmas morning, so as not to miss a beat.
The period will be especially delicate for the current leader of the Premier League and puts its 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 play 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 the New Year.
– «Unique atmosphere» –
This dizzying succession comes at a bad time for Arsenal. He has several injuries (Gabriel, Mosquera or Havertz) and his latest performances do not exactly invite optimism.
Even so, Arteta makes a virtue of necessity as he enters the period of “festive fixtures”, as they are called in England.
«It demands a lot from you, but I see it as an opportunity. I think we are lucky to be able to 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 declared this Friday.
Starting this weekend, Arsenal (36 points) will have a lot of work to defend their leadership, with a visit to Everton on Saturday night, a few hours after the game of their pursuer, Manchester City (34 pts), at home against West Ham.
In this critical period, the Londoners can at least be happy that they do not have any players affected by the African Cup (December 21 to January 18), unlike other English clubs.
– A lackluster Boxing Day –
Manchester United, for example, lose three potential starters with Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui. The same goes for Burnley (Tuanzebe, Foster, Mejbri) and Fulham (Iwobi, Chukwueze and Bassey).
Sunderland is the most affected club in the Premier League, since six internationals left for Morocco, host of the African tournament, including Congolese midfielder Noah Sadiki and Mozambican defender Reinildo Mandava.
It will be a tall challenge for French coach Régis Le Bris, the man who is working miracles with the Black Cats: the newly promoted and current eighth in the league opens the English winter sprint on Saturday in Brighton, a rival for the European places.
In addition to the national cups, 40 Premier League matches will be played in just 16 days.
In the midst of this frenetic schedule, an anomaly: there will only be one game on the famous Boxing Day, when traditionally all teams play each year on December 26.
The English league has preferred to schedule seven games the next day, a Saturday, and the last two on Sunday, mainly to accommodate the preferences of the television networks.
The only duel on Boxing Day, between Manchester United and Newcastle, will also begin at 8:00 p.m. local time, not exactly a treat for visiting fans.
