Premier League Notebook Heading into Week 18 and Week 19
Only Santa Claus and his staff work harder than Premier League players over Christmas. While the rest of Europe's top leagues close for business over the festive period, English football ramps up its activity, offering an almost nonstop selection of games.
This year, the calendar falls in such a way that most teams will play on Boxing Day (Friday) and two days later on Sunday. They will then go again on New Year's Day (the following Thursday) before the first weekend in January sees the traditional raft of FA Cup third-round ties.
That means four games in 10 days (perhaps as few as eight, at most 11) for Premier League teams, all while their contemporaries on the continent rest and recuperate ahead of the second half of the season.
"It's very difficult," Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said this week, per TEAMtalk. He continued:
"I have lots of respect for the players in this country.
At this moment the German guys are on the beach, the Spanish guys are in the Maldives getting sun—everybody else is doing that.
But in this country...there is no Christmas—just football, and I think [the players] deserve respect. The supporters all around the country give them that respect because every stadium is sold out. And I think the way to do it is with the kind of professionalism my players have shown.
"
The possibility of English football following suit and introducing a winter break has long been mooted, although never actually introduced. Discussions seem to be advancing, albeit slowly; it was recently reported that the FA would consider ending FA Cup replays (initially just at the third-round stage) if the Premier League would agree to a two-week break in January.
The FA is on board with this compromise because of the perceived benefit it will have to England's national team at major tournaments, with recent experience suggesting the Three Lions often turn up too fatigued from their club campaigns to give their very best efforts on the international stage.
This is a common reason put forward in favour of the winter break, but it is also arguably an increasingly obsolete one—with so many top foreign players now playing in England, numerous national teams are affected nearly as badly. That matters little to the Premier League—England, or indeed any national team, is not their direct concern—but that does not mean a winter break would not benefit their product, too.
The league should be looking at other arguments: Primarily that a mid-season break would improve the quality of the spectacle in the second half of the campaign and allow all sides to put their best foot forward.
As it is, injuries and accumulated fatigue mean the title run-in is often less of a race than a collection of the walking wounded—with the stresses of the mid-season fixtures also creating a competitive imbalance (smaller teams and their smaller squads are undoubtedly hit worse).
Fans want to see the best players at the peak of their powers, and a break before the run-in would better enable them to maintain their best form. That should be a powerful consideration. Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas said recently, via The Independent:
"It’s the toughest league in the world. While everyone is having their holidays—as I did the last three years, and trust me it helps a lot—[here] we play December 26th, December 28th, January 1st.
It’s not the same getting into the Champions League knockout stages after playing every two or three days in the Premier League [compared to] having had 10 days off on holiday, where you can go to Dubai and enjoy yourself.
"
On the other hand, of course, fans love the tradition of festive fixtures and remain attached to the romantic nature of the FA Cup and its replays (although perhaps not attached enough to turn up in the same numbers).
It will be a tough sell to convince anyone to change what has become a characteristic of the English football calendar, but perhaps everyone would benefit from it in the long run.
Week 18 and 19 Fixtures
All games 3 p.m. BST (10 a.m. ET) unless otherwise stated.
Boxing Day (Friday)
Chelsea vs. West Ham United (12:45 p.m.)
Burnley vs. Liverpool
Crystal Palace vs. Southampton
Everton vs. Stoke City
Leicester City vs. Tottenham Hotspur
Manchester United vs. Newcastle United
Sunderland vs. Hull City
Swansea City vs. Aston Villa
West Bromwich Albion vs. Manchester City
Arsenal vs. Queens Park Rangers (5:30 p.m.)
Sunday
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester United (12 p.m.)
Southampton vs. Chelsea (2:05 p.m.)
Aston Villa vs. Sunderland
Hull City vs. Leicester City
QPR vs. Crystal Palace
Manchester City vs. Burnley
Stoke City vs. West Brom
West Ham vs. Arsenal
Newcastle United vs. Everton (4:15 p.m.)
Monday
Liverpool vs. Swansea City (8 p.m.)
1. What to Watch out for This Week
Top of the Pops
With victory over Stoke City on Monday, Chelsea ensured they would be top of the Premier League table at Christmas—an important psychological blow, certainly, but it might also be something more.
In seven of the last 10 seasons, the side top of the league at Christmas has gone on to be crowned champions, while on all seven previous occasions a Jose Mourinho side has been top of the tree at this time of the year they have gone on to take the title.
Those are hardly encouraging omens for the rest of the league (more specifically, Manchester City).
Can Austin Keep the Run Going?
Fresh off his first top-flight hat-trick in the vital victory over West Bromwich Albion, Charlie Austin and his supporting cast at Queens Park Rangers face a daunting trip to Arsenal before another huge home contest—this time against Crystal Palace.
The Emirates would be an ideal place to get their first away point of the season (surely they cannot stay up by going the whole campaign without getting so much as a draw away from Loftus Road), but Harry Redknapp can be forgiven for already focusing much of his attention on the meeting with Palace, managed by ex-QPR boss Neil Warnock.
While the away form continues to hold them back, victories at home remain imperative. Austin's goals continue to give QPR great hope, but the job, like the season, is only half-done.
Boxing Day Offers Manchester United a Wealth of Good Memories
In the history of the Premier League, no side have enjoyed themselves on Boxing Day quite like Manchester United. Of the 20 Premier League games they have played on the day down the years, United have won on 17 occasions—losing just once. Good luck to Newcastle United, then, as they try to dent that record.
At the other end of the spectrum, Aston Villa have won just three of their 19 Boxing Day fixtures in the Premier League era. Swansea City will be liking the sound of that heading into Friday's game.
Bottom at Christmas an Ominous Place to Be
While we are on the subject of statistics, as we appear to be, it is worth pointing out that only twice in the Premier League era has the side that was bottom at Christmas gone on to avoid relegation.
West Brom (in 2004/05) were the first to do so before Sunderland repeated the feat last season. The Baggies had to go to the last day of the season to clinch their great escape, but a five-match winning streak propelled Sunderland to safety with games to spare.
Leicester City will take survival whichever way it comes, of course, but considering Nigel Pearson's men are already five points adrift, it looks like it will be a very long road back for the Foxes.
2. Video of the Week
3. Player to Watch
Andy Carroll
Since returning to full fitness after what were beginning to feel like never-ending injury problems, Andy Carroll has slowly started to play like the destructive attacking force Liverpool presumably hoped he would be when they paid £35 million for his services.
In six starts in the Premier League, Carroll has scored three goals and contributed an assist, helping West Ham United—who have not always had Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho available during the same period—to consolidate a fine start to the season into their current position, nestled inside the league's top four.
In that regard, they have replaced Southampton, who dropped off the pace following a recent run of tough games against the league's traditional powers. Now it is West Ham's turn to face a similar run: They visit Chelsea on Boxing Day, then host Arsenal two days later. If the Hammers are to get anything from those games and maintain their current momentum, Carroll figures to be an important element.
If Carroll can occupy and overpower a brilliant Chelsea defence (and a far less brilliant Arsenal one), then that will also send a powerful message to England coach Roy Hodgson, who has two months at the start of the new year to evaluate all his options.
England's attacking ranks appear stocked with a variety of potential candidates right now: Saido Berahino might have taken a step back for a number of reasons recently, but Carroll, QPR's Charlie Austin, Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane and Burnley's Danny Ings are among those who have begun to stake their own claims.
Carroll, as has always been the case, offers something different to the rest with his sheer size and presence, and as such, he will always be a particular curiosity. Roy Hodgson may have grown cold on the ex-Newcastle man over the years, but big performances in big games will surely make him impossible to ignore for too much longer.
"They’re tough games coming up but we have a good team as well and I’m sure they’re going to be just as worried about us as we are about them," Carroll said, per the Guardian. "We’re playing great football and I think any team that we play against is going to be worried about us.
"We’ve got more than one attacking option—we play it on the floor, play it in the air, down the sides."
4. Game of the Weekend
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester United
There are plenty of exciting and intriguing games coming up, with the fixture list serving as a good reminder why the festive period can be enjoyable for English football fans.
The most exciting of them all, however, probably comes at White Hart Lane on Sunday—as Tottenham host Manchester United in a game you sense could set the tone for the second half of the season.
If some had started wondering if Manchester United could actually end up forcing their way into the title race over the coming weeks, the 1-1 draw with Aston Villa reminded everyone of some of the enduring flaws in Louis van Gaal's side that mean they surely do not have the consistency and quality to match the league's very best.
Third remains a very realistic target, however, especially with Arsenal, Liverpool and the rest continuing to show plenty of flaws of their own.
Into that mix comes Tottenham, who seem to have finally got into a groove under Mauricio Pochettino and now sit just four points behind fourth-placed West Ham. Win against Leicester on Boxing Day, and they could return to the Lane to face United on Sunday knowing a positive result could send them into the top four—exactly where they will want to be come the end of the season.
The first half of the season has hardly been impressive from Spurs, steady rather than spectacular as they slowly adapt to Pochettino's preferred methods. But recent results have shown an added steel and poise, encouraging signs of what could be around the corner. Victory over United would only underline those thoughts.
For United, the dynamic is different. Sir Alex Ferguson generally enjoyed almost total domination over the north London club. However, Spurs have not lost to United in each of the last two seasons (winning two and drawing two).
Van Gaal will want to reassert the Old Trafford club's dominance over this head-to-head matchup and in the process strike a significant blow against a club slowly emerging as one of the most likely challengers to their pursuit of a Champions League qualification spot.
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