After the World Cup, the Premier League came back.

After the appetizers of the Carling Cup and the King’s Cup in the middle of last week, the Premier League will be the first to return on Boxing Day on December 26, followed by the return of Ligue 28 and La Liga on the 29th. Serie A will resume fighting on January 4 next year, while the Bundesliga, which is enjoying a long winter break, will usher in the next stage of the tournament on January 20. Many people may still be thinking about the wonderful World Cup and the best World Cup final in history, but it is time to switch back to club football. Let’s start with the earliest rematch in the Premiership. In this chaotic season of the scoreboard, recall and look forward to the situation and challenges ahead of the teams in the race for the fourth place.
[Arsenal: who will replace core Jesus? ]
Arsenal locked in the Christmas title early on November 12. Their pre-World Cup performance was perfect, making their way through the unpopular pre-season, eventually expanding their top-ranking advantage to five points. However, what coach Arteta worried most happened during the World Cup: regular striker Jesus injured knee ligament in Brazil and still has no exact time to make a comeback after surgery in early December.
Jesus played an irreplaceable role at Arsenal this season, making 20 appearances and, although he scored only five goals, completely activated the Gunners’ attack. With him in the frontline to contain and attract the other side’s defensive forces, Erde Gao and Martinelli and other frontcourt players in the state of the collective outbreak. As a result, although he scored 11 games at Arsenal before the World Cup, Arteta never rotated the center easily, but allowed him to fight on multiple fronts when he was in trouble in the Europa League.
Although the winter transfer window will open a week after the Premier League rematch, there is little hope for Arsenal to find an ideal replacement for Jesus immediately. On the one hand, the team should count on Nkatia on the bench to improve his form rapidly, on the other hand, Arteta may have to consider putting Martinelli as a guest center in the next two or three months to meet his immediate needs. In addition to Jesus, the muscle injury of Zinchenko, another new aid of the team, seems to have not been eradicated, so much so that the Ukrainian star has spent almost all his time recovering from the injury during the more than one-month rest period of the World Cup.
In addition, Arsenal will face West Ham, Brighton and Newcastle United from Boxing Day. The team has not won away from Brighton for many years, and the Magpies were the team that completely smashed the Gunners’ hopes last season. Tottenham and Manchester United will follow after the FA Cup in early January. The compact and intensive devil’s schedule will be a major test for Arteta’s team.
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Manchester City: the aftermath of the World Cup? Not necessarily]
Manchester City moved to Abu Dhabi during the World Cup. Since Blue Moon has contributed the most to the World Cup among the top players in the Premier League (16 for Manchester City, 14 for Manchester United, 12 for Chelsea, 11 for Tottenham, 10 for Arsenal, 7 for Liverpool and 5 for Newcastle), City’s several training sessions during training are considered to be of limited reference value. However, it still includes stars like Harland and Maharitz, both of whom scored in the Carling Cup against Liverpool and are in good form. Guardiola’s team does not seem to have to worry particularly about the “World Cup sequelae” around Boxing Day and the New year.
In addition, some of Manchester City’s stars did not stay in Qatar for too long during the World Cup, especially de Braunet and Jing Duoan, who returned to the team in early December. De Braunet won a round of applause when he started in the Carling Cup against Liverpool. Dablin, a former Premiership golden boot, exclaimed: “Debraone doesn’t look tired after returning from the World Cup. He looks like he just had two weeks of high-quality pre-season training.”
Of course, not all of Manchester City’s players returning from the World Cup are like de Braunet. Guardiola confirmed this week that England international Calvin Phillips was overweight when he returned from the World Cup: “he is not injured, but I do not know why he did not meet the physical conditions of training and playing when he returned to the team.” However, Phillips has a previous record of overweight and weight gain at Leeds United, and all he needs is a week or so of physical training. Manchester City still have the most luxurious squad in the Premier League and they are expected to quickly close the gap to the top of the table after the New year.
[Newcastle United: the most labor-saving contender to spoil the game]
Newcastle United, which ranked third in the Premier League before the World Cup, can be called the biggest dark horse in the Premier League this season. The last time the team lost was a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool at the end of August, followed by an unbeaten record of 12 games. Tottenham and Chelsea in the final six have also fallen at their feet, giving the impression that Eddie Howe’s team may be the top four players in the league this season.
Newcastle have won five games in a row just before the Premier League offseason, so the World Cup is thought to have more or less interrupted their form and the pace of their winning streak. However, only five Newcastle international players went to Qatar and did not spend too much because of the World Cup. The club’s army first played a training match against Middlesbrough and then flew to Saudi Arabia for a week-long training camp.
Newcastle’s trip to the Middle East is considered to be too commercial, the team’s schedule is packed with business activities, and the club has announced a number of sponsorship contracts in the Middle East. However, the team returned to St James’ Park and still beat visiting La Liga team Valecano 2-1. Eddie Howe’s side then beat Bournemouth 1-0 in the Carling Cup. They will face Leicester City and Leeds United on Boxing Day and the last day of the year. On the first match day of 2023, the Magpies will visit Emirates Stadium, which will be a real test of their dark horse.
[Tottenham: Conti’s rotation exam is coming]
Tottenham played 13 games in the 43 days before the World Cup break. Unlike several other Champions League teams in the Premier League, because the group qualifier was locked in the final round, not only did the team consume more, but Conti had little chance of rotation in the case of multi-fronts.
In the end, 11 Tottenham players took part in the World Cup, of which nine were regular players who apparently did not get enough rest during the Premier League offseason. The club gave the rest of the team a two-week holiday and the team regrouped on November 28. Tottenham did not train overseas as other teams did, and they chose to stay at the training ground in North London. Especially in early December, when Britain experienced a strong cold spell, players had to keep training on a snowy day of minus 5 degrees. Conti has come up with a training program similar to the preseason, and Tottenham’s overseas training results this summer are impressive. However, since most of the main players are absent from this local winter training, Conti may consider more rotation in the second half of the season to cope with the next three-front operations.
Conti has previously been criticized for not being good at multi-line fighting. After he entered White Hart Lane last season, the team quickly decoupled from all the cups and finally succeeded in fighting for the fourth place in the league. Tottenham will remain multi-fronted this season at least until early March. However, Tottenham’s schedule from Boxing Day looks relatively easy, playing against Brentford, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace. The team will then face Portsmouth in the FA Cup on January 7 and then suddenly enter the devil’s schedule: against Arsenal and Manchester City within five days. They will also meet Manchester City again on February 5 and visit Milan in the Champions League a week later.
Manchester United: a winning streak enters the post-Ronaldo era? ]
Manchester United officially terminated their contract with Cristiano Ronaldo after a 10-day truce in the Premier League. The latter was interviewed before the World Cup, creating the biggest shock effect in the Premier League this season. Manager Teng Hahe also took the opportunity to complete an important cleaning of the dressing room: since he obviously no longer trusts Cristiano Ronaldo, removing him from the team, at least in the view of the Manchester United manager, is good for the team.
After dealing with the dispute with Cristiano Ronaldo, Teng Hach led the team to Spain, but this time in Cadiz, the Red Devils lost 2 games and lost to Cadiz and Betis successively. However, as most of the main players in the team are playing in the World Cup, Teng Hach does not attach much importance to these two defeats, and he believes that this training will be of great benefit to the youth players who go out with the team.
Manchester United were the first giants to play again after the World Cup. They played Burnley in the Carling Cup three days after the final. In the end, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Rushford each scored a goal in the first and second half to help the team advance to the last eight. The team’s schedule during Boxing Day and the New year is also relatively easy, and there is every hope of a winning streak. The league’s three opponents Nottingham Forest, Wolves and Bournemouth are all relegated teams. They met the ailing Everton in the FA Cup, drew the weakest Charlton in the Carling Cup 1-stop 4-final and played four of the five games at Old Trafford. Tenhah will not face the real test until mid-January, with a Manchester derby on the 14th and a visit to Arsenal a week later.
[Liverpool: self-help, starting from the long holiday]
Liverpool chose to travel to Dubai during the Premier League offseason, where they were stationed for 11 days. Due to the unsatisfactory form and performance in the first half of the season, Klop gave players who did not take part in the World Cup a three-week holiday in the hope that they would get a complete rest and relaxation in order to prepare for the second half of the game.
Only seven people from Liverpool took part in the World Cup, making it the least affected of the top six. And during Dubai training, some players who finished the World Cup mission also came to rendezvous one after another. Klop revealed that he has re-optimized the team’s high-post oppression tactics during this period, while the Reds played two warm-up games here: a 1-3 defeat to Lyon, followed by a 4-1 win over AC Milan. What gratifies the Reds coach is that the injury in the first half of the team has also been alleviated during this period, with Matip and Keita returning to the team one after another. However, Louis Diaz suffered a serious knee injury and was absent at least until March next year after the operation.
The team lost 3-2 to Manchester City in the Carling Cup on December 22, in which Milner retired with injury, while Henderson cramped shortly after he came off the bench. After the match, Klop said that Alexander Arnold was still recovering from illness, while Chamberlain returned from illness the day before the game. Dijk, the backbone of the defence, returned to the team on the 22nd to resume training. Coupled with the uncertainty of the Fenway Group over the sale of the team, the Reds will not have a smooth second half of the season, and even if they are to return to the top four, it may take some luck to overcome the current seven-point gap.
[Chelsea: fight for the championship? Fight for four? ]
First stop three consecutive defeats.
When Chelsea fired Tuchel in September, they were still sixth in the league, and new owner Burley assessed that if the coach was not changed in time, the German would keep the team further and further away from the top of the table.
However, a few months after Porter was in charge, Chelsea fell to eighth in the pre-World Cup league rankings, just three points ahead of 12th Aston Villa, and the team is at risk of slipping into the middle. In addition, after the pre-World Cup schedule ended with a three-game losing streak in the league, the Blues’ goal-winning goal was completely wiped out and the gap from the top four was widened to eight points.
As a large number of international players participate in the World Cup, the outside world takes a wait-and-see attitude to the recent training results of the new handsome Porter, not to mention that there are a large number of injured in the team at the same time. The good news is that Reese James, Wesley Fofanah and Chuku Emeka have all used this month to return from injury, while Chilwell, who injured a hamstring before the World Cup, is also close to making a comeback. However, youngster Broya suffered a serious knee injury in the friendly against Aston Villa and was carried off on a stretcher and will miss the rest of the season.
After the rematch, the Blues in the first two league games are Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, Porter still has some running-in time. Then, starting on January 5, they will play back-to-back against Manchester City in the Premier League and FA Cup in four days, when the two teams met in the Carling Cup in early November, when the Blues lost 2-0. The team’s performance in these two games will to a considerable extent determine Burley’s confidence in Porter for the rest of the season.
Author: Liu Chuan
This article was originally published in sports plus App.
The picture is from the Internet.