End Of Year Football Preview
12 min
The relentless schedule continues as there is only one day break from England’s top flight this week, with no fixtures being played on Thursday. That being said, there are still fixtures from the Championship as well as from France Ligue 1 and Spain La Liga taking place, amongst others. With New Years being a weekend this time around, the traditional fixtures are combined with a standard weekend, as the round starts on the Friday and there are matches covering the following four days.
Friday’s top action
The action on Friday sets us up nicely for the rest of the busy weekend as we start with two matches from the English Premier League in the evening. West Ham will be looking to bounce back from their defeat to Arsenal with three points against another London team, Brentford.
West Ham have had a poor season so far and find themselves all the way down in 16th place, something they will look to address given the resources at their disposal. Brentford have had a very solid second season in the top division so far and are in tenth spot.
They managed a point at home to Tottenham in their last match. The second match from England’s top flight is Liverpool against Leicester. Liverpool are slowly climbing up the league after recovering from a very poor start to the season and find themselves in sixth spot, four points behind old rivals Manchester United.
Their long injury list shows no signs of abating and they decided to go early in the transfer market and sign Dutch star Cody Gakpo to add to their attacking options. Leicester suffered a poor defeat in midweek, losing 3-0 at home to Newcastle as they continue to struggle.
Elsewhere there are four matches being played in the Championship as well as fixtures in Portugal and Spain. Real Madrid are in action on Friday in the late kick off at 21:30, on the road at Valladolid and the likes of Sevilla, Almeria and Getafe are also in action.
Saturday highlights
Traditionally it is New Years’ day that sees the majority of the fixtures but given the fact it falls over a weekend means the matches are spread out this time around. Saturday offers six matches from England’s top flight with some excellent clashes to keep fans entertained. The action starts with the early kick-off from the Midlands where Wolves welcome Manchester United.
Both teams won their midweek matches with Wolves’ win taking them off the foot of the table. This will be a tough ask for them but also not so easy for United, especially with a bout of sickness sweeping through their squad. There are four mid afternoon matches including Manchester City against Everton, another tough task for Frank Lampard and his team.
High-flying Newcastle will be confident of another three points against a struggling Leeds side. The late kick off is Brighton against Arsenal, with the visiting team from London no doubt favourites but Brighton will be hoping to have something to say about that.
The only other major league to have any matches scheduled for Saturday is La Liga in Spain. Barcelona are playing in the early afternoon kick off at home to Espanyol, a derby match which should be an interesting encounter. There are two further mid afternoon matches to be played.
New Year’s Day Football
There are only two matches scheduled in the English Premier League on Sunday with Tottenham taking on Aston Villa at 15:00 and Nottingham facing another tough match at home to Chelsea at 17:30. Tottenham will know they need to get back to winning ways as their grip on a top four place is looking far from secure whereas Aston Villa will be hoping they can get over their home defeat to Liverpool.
Chelsea had a relatively easy match against Bournemouth in midweek and will be hoping for the same this time around as they look to climb the table in the hope of challenging for a top four place.
There are five matches to be played in the Championship on Sunday and the only other major league in action in France Ligue 1. There are six fixtures from France’s top flight with Monaco up against Brest, Nantes taking on Auxerre and Lyon facing Clermont being the afternoon highlights. The late match sees Lens welcome PSG, an important battle between first and second. Should PSG win they would go eleven points clear of Lens but a win for the home team would bring the gap down to five points and potentially make Ligue 1 interesting again.
Monday’s top events
The final match of this round of action from the Premier League involves Liverpool and Brentford, two teams that were also in action on Friday evening. There is also a busy day of action from the Championship with the likes of league leaders Burnley in action as well as high flying Sheffield United and top six rivals Norwich and Watford.
Four matches are set to be played in France Ligue 1 with the likes of Lille, Marseille and Nice all in action as matches are staggered throughout the day. One of the highlights of the day will undoubtedly be the Old Firm match between Rangers and Celtic, an early kick off as always. With Rangers already nine points behind their rivals, three points are a must for the home team here.
Rest of the week
Not a day goes by without top level action at this time of year and there are a number of Premier League matches on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. As well as this we also have Copa del Rey action from Spain and a number of fixtures from the Turkish Super Lig to keep us entertained until the following weekend.
Liverpool vs Leicester – Friday 30/12
Liverpool’s win over Aston Villa saw them record three successive wins in the league for only the first time this season. Manager Jurgen Klopp will be hoping to make that four against a Leicester side that has struggled for much of the season and looked out of sorts once again when they put in a poor display as they lost to Newcastle.
Liverpool’s injury issues continue to be a concern but they have forked out a significant sum to strengthen their forward options with the signing of young Dutch player Cody Gakpo.
Leicester have already lost nine games this season, which is more than in any of their previous campaigns in the top flight since their return in 2014. Brendan Rogers questioned his own team’s attitude in their latest defeat and a trip to Anfield will probably not be the ideal match to improve their situation. Damage limitation is probably what they are looking at in this match, especially as their star player, James Madisson, is missing once again due to injury.
There have been no draws so far this season for Leicester but you would imagine they would happily take one from this match. Liverpool have won six of the last ten with two wins going to Leicester.
Valladolid vs Real Madrid
After an extended break the La Liga season is back up and running and second placed Real Madrid will be looking to leapfrog their arch rivals Barcelona with a win over mid-table Valladolid. Having only been promoted last year they will be happy with the first half to their season and their current spot in 12th place. They are unbeaten in their last four matches at home and have not conceded more than one goal in any home La Liga fixture since August. This will be a big ask though as they have not beaten Real Madrid at home since 2008, with five losses from six meetings since then.
Real Madrid will not be at their strongest as they are still resting a number of players who were on World Cup duty including finalists Camavinga and Tchoumeni as well as their old timer, Luka Modric. The fact that they find themselves behind Barcelona at this point in the season despite their excellent start will be somewhat disappointing so they will be wanting to get off to a flying start in this match.
The loss to Rayo Vallecano before the break was an unexpected result but this fixture should be a relatively easy three points for the visitors, especially as they have won eight of the last ten encounters between the two.
Wolves vs Manchester United – Saturday 31/12
Wolves will be pleased with the start made by their new manager Julen Lopetegui as they won their last match at Everton. This is the first home match for their new boss and he will be hoping the home crowd can help his team to succeed in this tough encounter. They are now only one point from safety in 18th place but their home form has been a real cause for concern. They have three home losses in a row and conceded nine goals in recent matches. Lopetegui has only played Manchester United once in his career but did manage to beat them in the UEFA Europa League semi final in 2020.
Manchester United’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest was actually their biggest win under manager Erik Ten Hag. This prompted him to demand that his forward players be more lethal and score more goals when the opportunity arises. Their first chance to do so is this match and he will be hoping to continue on with their good recent form, as they have lost only one from their last 14 matches. Defensively they have been far from perfect though, conceding 16 goals in their eight away matches so far.
Wolves won their last match against United, a 1-0 win last January and also have three draws from the last ten to show for their efforts. This is traditionally a low scoring match with only 16 goals scored in the last 10 matches between these two.
Barcelona vs Espanyol
League leaders Barcelona face a derby match against Espanyol in their first task after the World Cup. They are currently leading La Liga with a two point gap over rivals Real Madrid. This is a fixture that heavily favours the home team, they are unbeaten in the last 24 matches between these two teams. The last time Espanyol managed three points in this fixture was back in 2009. Defence has been key for Barcelona this season, having only conceded five league goals so far but they will be missing Robert Lewandowski up front so will be hoping that other players will fill that gap.
Espanyol are only just out of the bottom three on goal difference and have had a difficult season so far with only two wins on the board. This is a match they won’t be expecting much from so anything they can get will be a bonus. In all likeliness, it is set to be a case of damage limitation against their more illustrious city rivals. A lack of goals is their main issue, having only scored five goals in their last six matches.
Brighton vs Arsenal
League leaders Arsenal got back into the groove with a comfortable win against West Ham a few days ago and this time they are on the road as they head to the South Coast to take on an impressive Brighton side. Many feared for the ‘Seagulls’ following the departure of Graham Potter to Chelsea but, after a small blip, new manager De Zerbi has got them playing some good Football once again. They continue to unearth great players in the transfer market, this was illustrated by the important role played by Alexis Mac Allister for Argentina in the World Cup.
Arsenal were top at Christmas for the first time in 15 years and they will be taking it one game at a time, not wanting to get too far ahead of themselves. They have the relentless pressure from Manchester City not far behind them as well as other teams doing well so they will know that any slip up will put them under pressure. The fact that striker Gabriel Jesus will be missing for a while is a worry for all associated with Arsenal. Defensively they have been excellent away from home this season and have six clean sheets from eight matches.
Brighton have already beaten Arsenal this season, knocking them out of the EFL cup in November. They also took four points from the Gunners last season, including a goalless draw in this fixture and a win at the Emirates stadium. Brighton have won five of the last ten between these two and there have been three draws too so this is certainly a game Brighton favour.
Tottenham vs Aston Villa – Sunday 01/01
The team from North London will be looking to get three points from this match to make up for the poor performance and ultimately a solitary point against Brentford. Tottenham admitted they gave themselves a lot to do in that match, in fact, statistics point to the fact that they have managed 14 of their 30 points from losing positions. Tottenham have conceded first in their last six league matches and that is something that Antonio Conte needs to deal with.
Aston Villa, by contrast, will be looking to exploit that and get off to a fast start. The football has been entertaining so far under the new management and fans will be hoping for more of the same. His record for both Arsenal and Aston Villa reads 54 matches without a single goalless match.
Given Aston Villa’s poor start the target for them will surely be a solid top half finish and then look to build on that for next season. They have a poor record in visits to London, having not kept a clean sheet in 13 consecutive trips to the capital and have lost on their last five visits.
Tottenham have the better record in this fixture, winning eight of the last ten meetings including a 4-0 thumping last season at Villa Park so a home win is definitely the most likely outcome here.
