MAN CITY 1-1 EVERTON: The Citizens are in free fall, taking 6 points of the last 36 available across the Premier League and Champions League. Jordan Pickford saved an Erling Haaland penalty attempt with swaggering gusto as one of the league’s poorer sides ran out of the Etihad with something to hold onto. This—along with the point at Arsenal—is a result Sean Dyche will relish, though Everton are still just three points clear of the drop.
FOREST 1-0 TOTTENHAM: The Tricky Trees are into third place in the Premier League table as we near the halfway mark. Anthony Elanga whipped one in early on to see off the visitors from London. Yet another central defensive injury, this time to Radu Drăgușin, will be a major headache for Ange Postecoglou in the festive period. Tottenham are bottom half, while their ex-manager Nuno Espirito Santo is in the Champions League places.
CHELSEA 1-2 FULHAM: This young Chelsea team got a taste of how long and winding the road is in a title race, and their West London neighbors hit them with a 1-2 punch late on at Stamford Bridge to snatch all three points and set Chelsea adrift from league leaders Liverpool. Enzo Maresca has done well to get them into this position. Can they stay in contention, or will their season drift towards a Top Four push? Fulham, meanwhile, are even with Man City and Aston Villa on 28 points.
NEWCASTLE 3-0 ASTON VILLA: Anthony Gordon struck early and Jhon Durán lost his head to swing this meeting of Top Six pretenders firmly in one direction. Newcastle are in a serious vein of form, and without European football to worry about they could wreak havoc on teams struggling with the matchload. Unai Emery’s side crumbled a bit here and are down to ninth.
WOLVES 2-0 MAN UNITED: It’s a big old mountain for Ruben Amorim to climb up in Manchester. He must truly have understood that while watching his keeper, André Onana, get olimpico’d from a corner on the way to a third loss in a row across all competitions. Wolves, on the other hand, defended tigerishly and took their chances semi-ruthlessly. That’s how you get out of the relegation zone.
LIVERPOOL 3-1 LEICESTER: The home side’s title picture went out of sight for a moment in the North English fog on Boxing Day night. Barclays legend Jordan Ayew turned sharply in the box and smashed in a goal low off Alison’s near post on 6 minutes. The flexible Ghanaian forward has 41 goals and 25 assists in 291 appearances, but he’s also scrapped and battled and won duels and scored match-winning goals for four different Premier League clubs. Ultimately, the Liverpool machine came whirring into life, and you’ve got to wonder if they can be caught at the top.
———————————
Why isn’t there a 3pm ET / 8pm UK match every Saturday? A great mystery of our time…
———————————
The podcast is off this week, but check out a couple fun ones:
———————————
MATCHES
ARSENAL vs IPSWICH TOWN
Friday 3:15pm ET, 8:15pm GMT
This was meant to be Arsenal’s season, the year they finally overcame Man City in a third-straight showdown to win the title. City are nowhere to be found, and some combination of injuries—Martin Ødegaard and now Bukayo Saka—sputtering form, bad luck, and (yes) poor refereeing decisions have left the Gunners nine points behind Liverpool. They need to take three points every time out at this point, and Ipswich at home is—on paper—their last straightforward mission before a tough run of fixtures. Or will the newly promoted Tractor Boys spring a surprise at the Emirates?
LAZIO vs ATALANTA
Saturday 2:45pm ET, 7:45pm GMT
The league leaders are in action: Atalanta have won 11 in a row in Serie A to go top, and Mateo Retegui tops the scoring charts. African men’s player of the year Ademola Lookman is firing as well, and they’ll be favorites—though Lazio have won seven of their last 10 in the league, climbing to fourth. Ex-Arsenal wingback Nuno Tavares leads the league in assists with eight as a key part of what Le Aquile do going forward.
LEICESTER CITY vs MAN CITY
Sunday 9:30am ET, 2:30pm GMT
The Citizens are must-see-TV these days, just to bear witness to the downfall. Seemingly every game, Pep Guardiola is stalking the sideline in dismayed ridisbelief, grasping for answers as his formerly all-conquering Sky Blue SWAT team drops points. Leicester gave a decent account of themselves in the first half at Anfield, and here they’ll have home comforts at the King Power Stadium against a team that’s no Liverpool at the moment.
ROMA vs A.C. MILAN
Sunday 2:45pm ET, 7:45pm GMT
It’s been a difficult first half of the season for the 10th-place Romans, but the third coach may be the charm: Claudio Ranieri has this team banging in the goals, with 5-0, 4-1, 3-0 and 4-1 victories in their last five across all competitions. A 2-0 loss to Como in there suggests they can be got at, but Milan are struggling to score goals in the absence of Christian Pulisic with injury. There’s an outside chance he’ll be ready for this one, a vital development for a club who need to start picking up a lot of points, fast, if they want to see the Champions League next season. As it stands, they’re eighth.⚽︎