Big Six Premier League Before The Fierce Competition Continues

The Premier League is back for all of us after the World Cup and this will be considered one of the hottest periods. The teams will find a way to accelerate quickly on the rankings. Therefore, the game will depend greatly on the pieces that the coaches have in their hands at this stage. However, not every team will enter the Boxing Day phase in the new year with full strength, and that could be an advantage for other clubs.

Next is the situation of the Big 6's forces before the top football live matches of Premier League start again. 

Arsenal

Arsenal have a lot of time at the top of the Premier League table, even counting the past month or not. They are still creating a 5-point gap with Man City in the rankings and that is both joy and pressure for this club.

The task of defending their position will be made even more difficult when it comes to Gabriel Jesus' knee injury, which has kept him out of action for three months. Oleksandr Zinchenko has admitted that Gabriel Jesus' injury will be a great loss for Arsenal until the Brazilian striker returns. Although Jesus has not scored for the Gunners in the last six games, his importance in attack is fully admitted by the fans.

Other players around Jesus such as Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Granit Xhaka have become Arsenal's new goalscorers. To replace Jesus, Eddie Nketiah is used. Obviously, it continues to be another great opportunity for this young star to show off. Nketiah did not have many opportunities in the Premier League in the previous period when he was only a reserve and was substituted near the end of the game.

Besides, Arsenal are facing a major obstacle in binding a long-term contract agreement with William Saliba. The young center-back has been a part of every Arsenal live game the start of the season. He will return to training with his teammates but is unlikely to feature in the Gunners' earliest match against West Ham. According to The Athletic, negotiations have been conducted but there are currently disagreements over the agreed salary between the two sides.

In addition, Emile Smith Rowe and Arsenal just underwent surgery on a groin injury in September and this stage is still too early for him. In Arsenal's last friendly match, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Alber Sambi Lokonga were still out and they had to try to regain their fitness until the day the Premier League returned. While Reiss Nelson was injured in that match and will be out for a few weeks.

As such, Arsenal will probably have a bit of a difficult time at this stage while waiting for their other players to fully recover. And it is also unknown how the lack of shooting line will affect them. The toughest opponent they could face will be Newcastle on January 4.

Man City

The next name mentioned is Manchester City. Pep Guardiola's team is the club with the longest player playing in the World Cup. So in terms of overall fitness, they are the most tired but also the best pacers when the tournament returns.

At the moment, Julian Alvarez is still on leave and has been told he will return to the club after the New Year. The latest bad news for Pep Guardiola's coacher and players is that Ruben Dias suffered a thigh injury while on duty at the 2022 World Cup with Portugal in the match against Switzerland. But instead of taking a break, he played again in the match against Morocco. And the latest information says that Pep only had his center-back in February.

This is indeed a big blow to the Spanish coach team when they are in the chase with Arsenal. Of course, in the hands of this coach there are still 4 other options including John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, Nathan Aki and Manuel Akanji. These four will have to rotate with each other until the Portuguese defender can return. In addition to that, the remaining players of Man City are still ready to fight for the next stage of the team. The first big opponent that they will face is Chelsea in the match after the New Year. Let's wait for the upcoming Manchester City live on tv matches. 

Liverpool

After Man City, we will also talk about Liverpool - the team that just lost to The Citizens in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup. At the moment, Liverpool are still facing the fact that their players are still recovering from injuries or are still in doubt about their fitness.

The club's hospital beds are currently registered with the following names including Arthur Melo, Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino, and Curtis Jones. This has a huge impact on Klopp and it happened before the World Cup took place. James Milner is the next name to join Liverpool's sick team. These players can return in turn in January 2022, except for Luis Diaz who will have to rest for up to 3 months after his surgery.

Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold could return to Jurgen Klopp's squad in the coming matches. At least, this will be news that will help ease the patchwork of this team's defense after having just had another bad match against Man City.

In addition, it is unlikely that Konate will return soon after joining France in the World Cup final. Mentioning Liverpool live matches this season always comes with unwanted words. Let’s see what they will take to fix the formation in the winter transfer period next time.

Chelsea

Besides Liverpool, Chelsea is also not a club with a really good power situation. Both Mateo Kovacic and Hakim Ziyech reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, so they are still on their vacation. Meanwhile, Wesley Fofana is unable to play in the friendly against Brentford because of a knee injury, and is also unable to return at this time.

N'golo Kante was also announced to continue to sit out. Unfortunately, Armando Broja suffered a serious knee injury in a recent friendly match and had to be out of action for a long time.

The team's injured players including Kante, Chukwuemeka, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Kepa are all yet to return, and will hopefully be ready in a few days. And the good news for the Blues is that Reece James will be back in their earliest game against Bournemouth.

The difficult point for Chelsea is the two matches after the New Year. They will consecutively face Man City in the Premier League and FA Cup in 3 days. Their Pre-World Cup record in the Premier League is still 3 losses and 2 draws.

Chelsea need to come back in a different way with more vigor if they don't want this season to really end early on them. But it also depends on the fitness of this squad. Up to this point, the Blues are not really stable with many injury positions and decline in performance.

Tottenham Hotspur

The remaining representative of the City of London, the Tottenham Hotspur club, also has a few force problems before the tournament returns. The reason is because Hugo Lloris and Cristian Romero have both played in the World Cup final and they have yet to return to the club. Meanwhile, Ivan Perisic has returned after continuing with Croatia to establish a trophy in Qatar.

Currently, two important injured positions in coach Conte's squad are Rodrigo Bentancur and Richarlison. The Uruguayan striker is expected to return after the New Year period, while Richarlison, trying to play against Croatia, has suffered an injury near his hamstring. He had to have an MRI to determine the extent of the injury and was determined to return in January, although a specific date is unknown. Besides, Ben Davies was informed by Conte that he will only be able to return after the New Year.

In general, Tottenham's problems are not as severe as those of Chelsea or Liverpool. What they need is to play stably at this stage and wait for the full return of the other pillars. The advantage of Conte's coach and students is that they do not have to meet any strong opponents in the new year period. This team is still competing to stay in the top 4 with Manchester United chasing right behind.

Manchester United

With Manchester United, their biggest change in the squad is of course the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo. Anyway, they are the club that is not under much pressure from the players' injuries. The club's only suspension was Axel Tuanzebe.

In addition, the sudden illness of Harry Maguire will make it a bit difficult for them because of the lack of central defenders in the coming matches. Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane still do not need to return to the Red Devils headquarters right now after participating in the World Cup final. Although Erik ten Hag has reminded his central defenders that the Premier League is almost back, they will probably have to continue to rest for a while. Currently, the position of central defender is temporarily taken by Casemiro and he may even have to continue playing there until his teammates return.

Diogo Dalot also suffered a minor injury from the World Cup that kept him out of the match against Burnley. That is also the remaining encroachment of the Manchester United squad.

In terms of rivals Nottingham Forest, Wolves or Bournemouth in the upcoming period, the Red Devils can completely achieve beneficial results against these teams. It is also a mandatory point if they still want to pursue the top 4 position in the near future. They only have the best way to make 3 points by playing less than one game.

The Premier League is always an interesting spiritual food for us every weekend. The exciting matches and unpredictable developments of this tournament will certainly warm up the cold atmosphere in this winter. Which club do you support? Share it with us and don't forget to update hot football stories here daily with ANZFootball!