After a 44-day break due to the World Cup, the English Championship is the first of the major European championships to resume on Monday with its traditional and highly anticipated ‘Boxing Day’.
It can allow leaders Arsenal to increase their lead.
At the top of the Premier League (37 points) with a five-point advantage over their first pursuer, Manchester City, Granit Xhaka’s Arsenal are not yet thinking of the supreme title they have not won since 2004.
But according to their coach Mikel Arteta, the Gunners are not in the mood to give gifts to West Ham, in bad shape in 16th position, Monday (9:00 p.m.).
‘We are playing at home. The + Boxing Day + is a very special match in the history of the championship, the family atmosphere is always incredible, we want to make the most of it, but above all we want to continue our momentum and mark the spirits, warned the Spanish technician.
His team ended the first part of the season with an impressive record of twelve wins, a draw and a defeat (3-1), at the beginning of September on the ground of Manchester United.
“This second part of the season is going to be interesting and intense, we can’t wait to get back to business,” assured Arteta.
The 2022 World Cup, however, left traces in the workforce of the north London club: the Brazilian Gabriel Jesus, author of five goals and five assists in the Premier League, injured his knee in Qatar and ‘he is very difficult to set a date for his return,” admitted Arteta, who did not rule out a reinforcement in the attacking sector during the winter transfer window.
Haaland has already scored
Even without Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal are the favorites of this London duel: “It’s really very hard to resume with a match like this”, admitted David Moyes, the coach of West Ham, whose team n bagged only 14 points in his first fifteen games of the season.
Still on Monday, Newcastle and Fabian Schär, surprising 3rd (30 pts), go to Leicester (13th, 17 pts) in the hope of cementing their ambitions to compete in the Champions League and gain psychological ascendancy over Foxes than the Magpies will face again in January in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, the League Cup.
Other contenders for the C1, Tottenham (4th) and Manchester United (5th) respectively face Brentford (10th) on Monday and Nottingham Forest (18th) on Tuesday, while Liverpool (6th) goes to Aston Villa (12th) who will be deprived of his controversial goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, still in Argentina like the other 2022 Premier League world champions.
Tottenham coach Antonio Conte is convinced that his star striker Harry Kane will have digested his missed penalty in the quarter-finals of the World Cup against France and his club teammate Hugo Lloris, synonymous with elimination (defeat 2- 1).
“We are talking about one of the best strikers in the world,” swept the Italian technician.
Erling Haaland did not play in the World Cup since Norway did not qualify, but he has already shown that he should be counted on and Manchester City, opposed to Leeds on Wednesday at the end of ‘Boxing Day ‘.
The Premier League’s top scorer (18 goals) has already returned to the pitch and… scored a goal in his team’s 3-2 victory over Liverpool in the League Cup on 22 December.
“We are ready, mentally and physically, and we want to fight it out,” warned Algerian international Riyad Mahrez.
/ATS