The Premier League is back and we’re all trying to remember what was happening before we all got distracted by the problematic shiny thing. Arsenal are top! Madness.
Game to watch – Arsenal v West Ham
The World Cup break came at a good time for some clubs. Arsenal could probably have done without it.
They’d won seven and drawn the other of their last eight Premier League games, including victories over Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea, to open up an improbable but intriguing five-point lead over a stuttering Manchester City at the top of the Premier League. They might not end up winning the title, but their dominance of the first part of the season has put them in genuine contention which is itself quite a change of pace.
Can Arsenal slot straight back into that unstoppable form? Will City be so slipshod after the break? Questions that will define the rest of the season at the summit.
At the pointier end of things, West Ham might have been rather more grateful for the pause. Their Europa Conference exploits had given them the most brutal pre-World Cup schedule of anyone, and what had looked like a vaguely encouraging recovery in October – three wins in five games that month – had melted into four defeats in five to leave the Hammers vexingly close to the trapdoor when the curtain came down on act one.
If the first two defeats of that run – narrow ones at Liverpool and Manchester United – could be written off as minimally damaging, the home losses that followed against Palace and Leicester could not.
While Arsenal have a World Cup-wearied and depleted squad, West Ham can look for a fresh start in this tasty looking London Derby that rounds off the Boxing Day action.
Victory for Arsenal would take them eight (8) points (pts) clear for a couple of days, while for West Ham it represents a festive free hit ahead of a run of games into January that will have a far greater say on how the remainder of their season pans out. Before January ends the Hammers face Brentford, Leeds, Wolves and Everton; we’ll know by then whether relegation is a genuine threat for a team that’s gone from finishing sixth and seventh to being at sixes and sevens (sorry).
Team to watch – Tottenham
Manchester City may have been affected more on raw numbers of players and minutes but it is surely Spurs who will feel the most profound impact of the World Cup.
Spurs had 11 non-loan players at the tournament (as an aside, as long as you can live with Heung-min Son…
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