After a long break due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar, domestic football leagues around the world are set to resume with the English Premier League restarting with the traditional Boxing Day fixtures on Monday, December 26, 2022.
As the EPL returns to our screens and conversations, here are 5 talking points from the first half of an exciting 2022-23 PL season.
Arsenal’s stunning title charge
Manchester City have won four of the last five English Premier league titles and will be determined to win three in a row for the first time in their history with another triumph this season.
So far, however, that has been easier said than done. Usual title rivals Liverpool have been off the pace this season but a new challenger has emerged: a resurgent Arsenal, who sit at the top of the tree this Christmas having won twelve and lost just one of their opening fourteen games.
City’s strength in depth and title-winning pedigree probably still just about gives them the edge in this race, not to mention the prodigious goalscoring abilities of Erling Haaland, but Mikel Arteta’s Gunners have been superb and are deservedly top of the league at this stage. Can these two sides push each other all the way?
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Haaland’s ridiculous goalscoring feat
He’s already scored 23 goals this season, 18 of which have come in the Premier League. Obviously, Haaland’s main aim will be to win his first major title, but there’s now a strong chance the Norwegian breaks the Premier League scoring record (he only needs 14 in the next 24 to tie Mohamed Salah’s record).
After being out for a month-long break due to the World Cup, Haaland resumed his goalscoring with a strike against Liverpool in the EFL Cup.
Newcastle sitting in 3rd place and battle for Top 4
Only City and Arsenal look remotely likely to win the English Premier league this year, but the race for the top four is where things really start to get interesting.
In third place are Newcastle, who have defied all expectations to land themselves firmly in the hunt for European football with some stellar performances. Eddie Howe’s side have lost only once so far and, despite the money being pumped into the club by their new owners, have exceeded almost everyone’s expectations by doing so well, so soon.
Behind the Magpies are Tottenham Hotspur, who under Antonio Conte continue to be one of the most confusing sides in the league. Spurs are a defensively solid outfit and can be shockingly dull to watch at times, yet they are among the league’s highest scorers and remain on course to qualify for the Champions League for a second successive season.
Their form was beginning to dip before the World Cup, but Conte will be hoping to repeat his side’s form in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign.
The race for the top four doesn’t end there, however. Next up are Manchester United and Liverpool, both of whom have recovered from poor starts to climb the table and will fancy their chances of sneaking into a Champions League spot. United are steadily improving under the management of Erik ten Hag, while Liverpool have arrested their slump after a series of poor results and performances.
Chelsea will also try and keep optimistic about European qualification despite currently sitting eighth in the table, needing to find consistency under new manager Graham Potter. Meanwhile, Potter’s former club Brighton have started the season superbly and will be desperate to achieve European qualification themselves. With so many sides trying to fit into a handful of league places, this is bound to be a fascinating narrative as the season progresses.
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Liverpool’s up-and-down season
Well, Liverpool’s season could still go one of two ways.
This could just be a re-run of the shocking 2020/21 campaign in which the Reds overcame a horrendous start to scrape a top-four finish, or could decline even further with Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota still sidelined with Darwin Nunez yet to find his feet.
The Reds have won just 6 out of 14 matches sitting in 6th place.
Fight to avoid the drop
This is shaping up to be one of the best relegation battles in years, with pretty much all of the bottom 10 or 11 teams needing to look over their shoulder.
The early frontrunners for the drop were newly-promoted Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest. Both sides have since demonstrated that they are capable of picking up points in the top flight, however, opening the door for a less obvious team to fall through the trapdoor.
Currently bottom of the table are Wolves, who despite possessing a more-than-decent squad have simply been unable to score goals. Will a change of management help to steady the ship at Molineux?
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