Which Premier League club will fare best in festive endurance test?
Admittedly, it’s hard to feel too much sympathy for pampered multi-millionaires but a Christmas programme of three games over an eight-day period still represents an enormous ask.
Rich folk can get tired too.
The Premier League may not be the best in the world, a fact highlighted by the struggles of England’s elite in the group stages of the Champions League, but it can be justifiably labelled the most demanding. And no time is more taxing than Christmas.
That perhaps explains why so few teams take a full haul of nine points from this period.
Last year for instance saw Chelsea, the team that would ultimately coast to the title, pick up just four points after beating West Ham 2-0, drawing 1-1 at Southampton and losing 5-3 at Tottenham.
Manchester City’s seven-point haul included a 2-2 draw at home to Burnley, Arsenal lost at Southampton while Manchester United drew at Tottenham and Stoke.
The lesson? Winning games at this time of the year ain’t easy. Last season’s top four all won on Stephen’s Day 12 months ago but couldn’t get through this period unscathed.
And if the elite, the team’s with the deepest pockets and biggest squads struggle to cope, what hope have the rest?
It will be particularly fascinating to see how leaders Leicester cope with this period. While the suspicion remains that they must eventually falter Claudio Ranieri’s men — inspired by the goals of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez — have risen to just about every challenge this season, losing just one of their opening 17 games.
The Christmas period provides a stern test given they face a trip to Anfield today to face an erratic Liverpool side before hosting Manchester City on Tuesday.
They conclude their Christmas programme with a home game against Bournemouth. That looks a pretty straightforward task on paper but Eddie Howe’s men have hit form this month, winning three on the trot.
It’s impossible not to have been impressed by Leicester this season but the next week provides the biggest test of their title credentials yet.
However, travelling to the King Power Stadium will be a big test for a Manchester City side that have mixed the good with the downright woeful this season.
Today, they host a Sunderland side that have proven something of a bogey side to them in the past before concluding their campaign to a Watford side that are clearly, as Liverpool discovered last weekend, no soft touch.
If Manuel Pellegrini’s men can pick up nine points from that trio of games they’ll undone some of the damage caused by last Monday’s 2-1 defeat at Arsenal. That’s a big if though?
On the back of the vital win over City, in-form Arsenal return to the scene of their lowest domestic point of last season today, visiting a Southampton side that beat them 2-0 a year ago.
On the plus side for Arsene Wenger, their opposition today are a far less confident, vibrant outfit than they were 12 months ago having taken just one point from the last 15 available.
After the trip to St Mary’s, Arsenal have winnable home games against Bournemouth and Newcastle so the opportunity exists to take a full points haul.
The worry, as is so often the case with Arsenal, is a lengthy injury list that limits Wenger’s scope to rotate. That raises questions. How will, for instance, Aaron Ramsey, a player with a history of muscle injuries, cope with the accumulation of games in a short period of time? Ditto the ageing Mathieu Flamini?
Similar concerns apply to Tottenham due to their aggressive pressing approach. Maintaining the tempo won’t be easy with games coming thick and fast.
Louis van Gaal could do with some festive cheer after a miserable few weeks but Stoke, who Manchester United face today, are the last opposition you’d want to face away from home when short on confidence.
Then comes arguably the most fascinating game of the entire festive period as United host an unloved Chelsea side in these curious days post Jose Mourinho.
A bad Christmas haul would keep the spectre of relegation hanging over the champions while a winning festive period, including a victory at Old Trafford, would add weight to the belief that player power got rid of Mourinho.
How Liverpool will fare is anyone’s guess given the Jekyll and Hyde nature of their form under Jurgen Klopp. Two of their three games — against Sunderland and West Ham — are on the road which may not be a bad thing given that they’ve reserved their best performances under Klopp for games outside Anfield.
At the foot of the table, if Aston Villa are to have any hope of producing the greatest of great escapes the revival has to start this week given they host West Ham today, play Norwich Monday before facing a real relegation six-pointer against a Sunderland side that will doubtless have also targeted this game as a real opportunity to pick up three points.
The 2015/16 season has been a crazy one until now. Expect more of the same over the next eight days. Just don’t expect many full point hauls.
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