This is the ideal fixture with which to discuss the upcoming weeks which will be the most disruptive ever for EPL teams.

 

It is not like the mid season break for the last World Cup as that was a total break, this is far more difficult to deal with and comes in a season when there have been an enormous amount of injuries, with some teams having been missing multiple key players for many months.

 

Firstly, we have the African Cup of Nations which is being held in the Ivory Coast between January 13th-February 11th and also the Asian Cup in Qatar pretty much simultaneously, January 12th- February 10th. Squads for each competing nation are largely known, but have to be finalised today and tomorrow respectively.

 

There is also a two week winter break, but this is being staggered, so that there is EPL football each week, half the teams will not play January 13-14, the others will be free January 20-21.

 

We also have two rounds of FA Cup games, the third round is being played this weekend (Jan 5-7) and the 4th (Jan 26-28).

 

In addition, the transfer window opened yesterday and will run until Thursday February 1st .

 

All teams will play four EPL fixtures after today and until normality returns, which will be the weekend of February 17th, but some will have eight games to play, League Cup semi finals and two potential FA Cup rounds.

 

It will require a lot of juggling with resources and the balls are already in the air this evening!

 

These two are battling for 6th place in the table and that prize European spot which comes with it and which both have developed a taste for........

 

2023/24				Overall									Home						Away
				P	W	D	L	F	A	Gdf	Pts	Form	P	W	D	L	F	A	P	W	D	L	F	A
	1		Liverpool	20	13	6	1	43	18	+25	45	WWXO	10	8	2	0	26	8	10	5	4	1	17	10
	2		Aston Villa	20	13	3	4	43	27	+16	42	WLXW	10	9	1	0	29	8	10	4	2	4	14	19
	3		Manchester City	19	12	4	3	45	21	+24	40	WWXW	9	6	3	0	24	9	10	6	1	3	21	12
	4		Arsenal	20	12	4	4	37	20	+17	40	LLXW	10	7	2	1	22	10	10	5	2	3	15	10
	5		Tottenham Hotspur	20	12	3	5	42	29	+13	39	WLWW	10	7	0	3	20	13	10	5	3	2	22	16
	6		West Ham United	19	10	3	6	33	30	+3	33	WWWL	9	5	2	2	17	10	10	5	1	4	16	20
	7		Manchester United	20	10	1	9	22	27	-5	31	LWLO	10	6	0	4	13	16	10	4	1	5	9	11
	8		Brighton & HA	19	8	6	5	38	33	+5	30	WXLX	10	5	4	1	22	14	9	3	2	4	16	19

 

United have won their last three EPL starts without conceding, including at Arsenal five days ago, but that formline was hardly franked with the Gunners no show at Fulham on Sunday. The Hammers are always capable of throwing in the odd howler though and have lost 5-1 at Liverpool and even more alarmingly, 5-0 at Fulham, both in the last month. They also conceded 30 attempts on goal, 18 ITB, 8 on target, 5 BC's and an xGA of 2.8 at the Emirates, so that clean sheet did come with a large slice of good fortune.

 

Some late decisions for David Moyes, but it looks like the Irons will be without all or most of Luca Paqueta , Michail Antonio, Kurt Zouma, Mohammed Kudus (Ghana call up) and Nayerf Aguerd (Morocco). That leaves them short in central defence and with Jarod Bowen up top and in that "false 9" position without his two main offensive team mates and providers of 8 assists.

 

Brighton lose Simon Adinga (Ivory Coast) and Kaoru Mitoma (Japan) to international calls ups, Lewis Dunk to suspension, along with what looks like 7 players missing through injury. They seem likely to line up how they did against Tottenham last time out apart from the loss of Dunk and Igor Julio at the back, those are two massive losses, but they did score four goals in that game and led by four until very late, so it would be wrong to feel they are not going to pose an offensive threat. Also, Pervis Estupianan did play 45 minutes against Spurs after three months out and is a natural LB, unlike Igor. The Seagulls have conceded 11 goals in the last six games that Dunk has missed, but they never keep a clean sheet in any case and both teams have scored in 22 of their last 23 starts and they have scored in 34 of 35. They have scored in 22/23 on the road, with 2+ goals in 12 of those (52.17%) and have also done so in 5 of 6 visits to the London Stadium, being unbeaten in all six with three high scoring draws, two finishing 2-2 and one 3-3 and something similar would not surprise and it seems sure to be a fun watch.

 

 

 

With 25 of the 38 teams scoring 2+ goals and all that is why television companies pay the big bucks for Premier League football.

 

 

I spoke last year about what a model pro James Milner is and the sky high fitness levels he keeps to and if he plays this evening , as seems likely, it will be the 23rd consecutive calendar year that he has played an EPL game. A remarkable record.

 

Good luck!