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It’s an age-old question: who will be first at Christmas?
With Manchester City out of the mix for the Club World Cup (they come back to play the second leg of the Festive Fixtures next Wednesday), we have three choices: Aston Villa, Arsenal and Liverpool.
Villa have three undeniable problems as they made it 15 wins in a row at Villa Park and hosted Sheffield United on Friday.
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But Saturday has a treat for us: Liverpool hosting Arsenal in the late game on Saturday that’s clearly the FUBO Game of the Week.
Let’s hope Arsenal actually comes to try and win the game. Last week, despite all the anticipation of the tremendous legacy of the Liverpool vs. Manchester United clash, United parked the bus, the train, the ice cream truck, the ox and cart, an ambulance and couple of hot dog carts in front of the goal while rarely even pretending like it knew where the Liverpool goal was.
The Reds can only blame themselves for only scraping a point in a tepid 0-0, they didn’t have many ideas or any creativity in breaking down an opponent who is happy with a point from the get-go.
Arsenal are betting on higher stakes than United and getting 3 points, with their second Christmas game being West Ham at home, will be the Gunners’ target. This deserves to be equated with an open and entertaining match between two groups with a lot of offensive pedigree on the field. field.
What will be comforting for Liverpool is the spark of form from the Carabao Cup. The Reds beat West Ham 5-1 on Wednesday to advance to the semi-finals and were led by midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai. He is one of the main reasons why Liverpool started the season so well and yet collapsed last month.
Szoboszlai scored a real Christmas goal against West Ham, but he also expects a start on Saturday for midfielder Curtis Jones, who scored two fine goals and was brimming with confidence as he faced the Hammers’ defenders.
Given the avalanche of negativity towards United, it’s surprising to think that there are only six issues for Man City.
Most expected a thrashing at the hands of Liverpool. And while the timid tactics were a critique of this team’s arrogant offensive heritage, they fought back.
The question is: where do they go from here?
The Red Devils may have the toughest couple of games this week, travelling to West Ham and then facing Aston Villa at home.
As genuine as Villa sounds, they still don’t have the ‘Best Four’ lines of the other groups in mind and United will feel this is the club they will have to catch up to in order to qualify for the Champions League next time around. . next season.
With that in mind and the fact the home crowd will be much more restless if they see a team who only wants to defend, this could open them up against Villa.
Haven’t Unai Emery’s Birmingham boys scored the second-most goals in the Premier League this season behind Manchester City?United will surely have to defend well, but you can’t move up the table with draws: they will have to. move forward at some point.
After a streak of 4 games without a win (3 losses and a draw), the Spurs have won consecutively but are still six points from the top. Their Christmas games are the most difficult, but they are complicated against Everton and Brighton.
Everton, despite being docked 10 points for financial irregularities, are seven points out of safety, so relegation does not appear to be on the cards, as it may have been at the start of the season. a four-game winning streak, which is the streak of any team in the league.
If they had their problems solved, they would be in ninth place, above Brighton.
Everton are starting to see problems with the squad but, as expected with Sean Dyche, the Toffees are stingy when it comes to giving them up. In fact, they have conceded fewer goals than Spurs and that is the key to this adjustment, as Tottenham have scored in both of their last 29 Premier League games, the longest run in the competition. They have scored in one and both games this year, being the only team in the league to do so.
It’s also something of a guy’s meeting, as striker Richarlison plays against his former team, the team that had to sell him due to his monetary misdeeds.
Richarlison has scored 3 in his last two games, more than in his first 39 games for Tottenham.
While the great sports-washing experiment for the Saudi royal family appears to be working, Newcastle, their crown jewel, has seen the season hit a few bumps.
Despite proclamations that the team had “arrived”, they were eliminated from the Champions League on an organizational level by finishing last. They are six questions away from qualifying for next season’s tournament.
However, they have the easiest set of fixtures — facing Luton and then hosting Nottingham Forest, who just fired their manager.
Combined, those teams have one point out of an available 18 in the past three gameweeks. Anything other than maximum points for the Magpies will be seen as a sizeable disappointment.
After those games, Newcastle will travel to Anfield on New Year’s Day, and then their next league match will take on Manchester City.
FRIDAY: Aston Villa vs Sheffield United.
SATURDAY: West Ham v Manchester United; Fulham vs. Burnley; Luton vs. Newcastle; Manchester City v Brentford – Match postponed; Nottingham Forest vs. Bournemouth; Tottenham-Everton; Liverpool vs. Arsenal.
SUNDAY: Wolves v. Chelsea.
TUESDAY: Newcastle v Nottingham Forest; Bournemouth v Fulham; Sheffield United v Luton; Burnley against Liverpool; Manchester United-Aston Villa.
WEDNESDAY: Brentford v. Wolves; Chelsea v. Crystal Palace; Everton v. Manchester City.
THURSDAY: Brighton vs. Tottenham; Arsenal-West Ham.
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