Much like returning to your childhood home for Christmas, there was something oddly comforting about the Boxing Day Premier League fixtures. Everything went just about as you would expect.
Five of the top six swept aside weaker opposition, while Spurs laboured to a draw. Your parents rowed over how long the turkey needed cooking for. Newcastle won with ease, because apparently they’re good now. You had to remind a grandparent that they can’t say that anymore.
Erling Haaland scored, Mo Salah scored, Harry Kane scored, Miguel Almiron scored. Wanting to avoid another family row, you put on “Love Actually” for the 17th consecutive year. It all just worked.
Do not expect quite the same level of comfort over the New Year’s period. With a full round of matches spread from Friday 30 December to Sunday 1 January, there are more potential banana skins on display than a hypothetical monkey refuse plant.
Manchester United visit no-longer-bottom Wolves, Arsenal face the high-flying Seagulls and Spurs host a resurgent Aston Villa.
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Premier League Gameweek 18 fixtures and how to watch
Friday 30 December
- West Ham vs Brentford (7.45pm)
- Liverpool vs Leicester (8pm) – Sky Sports
Saturday 31 December
- Wolves vs Man United (12.30pm) – BT Sport
- Man City vs Everton (3pm)
- Fulham vs Southampton (3pm)
- Bournemouth vs Crystal Palace (3pm)
- Newcastle vs Leeds (3pm)
- Brighton vs Arsenal (5.30pm) – Sky Sports
Sunday 1 January
- Spurs vs Aston Villa (2pm) – Sky Sports
- Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea (4.30pm) – Sky Sports
Wolves vs Manchester Utd
Are Wolves good now? Are Manchester United good? Is Marcus Rashford becoming the player he was always supposed to?
There are more unknowns hanging over this clash than any other this New Year’s weekend. Manchester United swept past a poor Nottingham Forest side 3-0 on Tuesday in their first league match since Cristiano Ronaldo’s acrimonious second exit.
A comparison Erik ten Hag has made himself, Rashford’s directness and swaggering destructiveness resembled Kylian Mbappe. Defensively sound, even with Luke Shaw at centre-back, United are fifth, one point behind Spurs with a game in hand after their tepid Boxing Day performance at Brentford.
This visit to Molineux will provide the sort of test that the Red Devils have failed under a series of recent manager and a confident win will allow United’s currently-building confidence to flourish.
Meanwhile, Wolves launched themselves off the bottom of the Premier League on Boxing Day with a 95th-minute winner over Everton in Julen Lopetegui’s first league game in charge. The Midlands side were winless in five league matches before the break and had scored just eight goals in 15 league games, but ground out a spirited win at Goodison with two well-worked goals.
That 2-1 win gave Wolves fans hope and an excitement which has long been missing at Molineux under successive defensive, restrained coaches. A win in this game could leave the side who were bottom at Christmas in 14th by New Year’s Eve. They’re only seven points off the top ten as it is.
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Sitting sixth in the Premier League, Liverpool’s biggest enemy this season has been consistency. However, since the World Cup, Jurgen Klopp’s side impressed despite losing 3-2 to Man City in the Carabao Cup and then swept aside Aston Villa on Boxing Day.
Liverpool fans will be relieved that Salah, who scored in both those games, has restarted the season in the same form as he was in before the break, notching five goals in five games.
Although the Reds still have injury worries up front, highlighted by the decision to start Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the left-wing, the return to fitness of their first-choice defence and midfield is a huge boost.
They may also be psychologically bolstered by the addition of Cody Gakpo, although the Dutchman is not yet available.
With James Maddison injured, Leicester capitulated embarrassingly 3-0 to Newcastle at the King Power on Boxing Day, going 2-0 down within seven minutes.
Having won four of their last five Premier League games before the World Cup after a catastrophic start, the Foxes believed that their fortunes had changed.
If that Newcastle performance was any indicator, they were wrong. Weak defensively and tepid going forward despite enjoying 61% possession, Brendan Rodgers will not survive too many more performances like that.
Leicester have not won in their last 11 league matches at Anfield but did beat Klopp’s side 1-0 in their last game of 2021.
Brighton vs Arsenal
Any concerns that table-toppers Arsenal would falter after the restart evaporated an hour into their 3-1 Boxing Day win over West Ham.
Eddie Nketiah proved himself a capable replacement for Gabriel Jesus, while Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli’s youthful brilliance picked up exactly where it left off.
At the back, only a Said Benrahma penalty could penetrate the second-best defence in the league, unbeaten in nine Premier League games and five points clear at the top of the table.
While accusations that their squad is thin outside the regular starting lineup are well founded, Mikel Arteta’s men will believe they can beat anyone.
Yet Roberto De Zerbi’s Seagulls will present a much greater challenge than West Ham. After a largely second-string XI lost to Charlton in midweek, Brighton then swept past Southampton, with Solly March’s thunderbolt the pick of the goals.
Despite World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister’s absence, the Seagulls were well-organised and efficient, with 67% possession and three goals from four shots on target.
After failing to win his first five league games, De Zerbi has won three of his last four, including a 4-1 win over Chelsea.
Sat in seventh, just a point behind Liverpool and one place above Chelsea, Brighton beat Arsenal 3-1 in the Carabao Cup Third Round in November. Both sides rotated heavily for that tie, but there is definitely potential for an upset at the Amex.
Spurs vs Aston Villa
Little about their 2-2 Boxing Day draw with Brentford will have pleased Spurs fans. Although coming back from 2-0 down is a positive, as is confirmation that Kane seems unaffected by his World Cup quarter-final penalty miss, this was a familiarly disappointing display.
Three of Tottenham’s four league losses have come in their last six matches and they have only beaten Bournemouth and Leeds in that period. Their last competitive clean sheet came against Everton on 15 October and they have failed to beat another top six team all season.
Spurs will have Rodrigo Bentancur back for this game and Hugo Lloris may start after returning on the bench after the World Cup final, but they must improve as a unit to beat Unai Emery’s Aston Villa.
Under Emery, Villa have beaten two top ten sides (Manchester United and Brighton) in the league before the break. Although they lost 3-1 to Liverpool on Boxing Day, their new forward duo of Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins will harass the Spurs’ back-line, while Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings are rediscovering the form which made their names under Dean Smith.
Villa had six shots on target and 48 per cent possession against Liverpool. If they could get a result at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the voices criticising Antonio Conte will get louder and louder.
New Year, new Spurs?
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