The festive schedule for title chasing teams

As we approach Christmas, three teams are looking to battle for the Premier League title. Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea have all played 17 games, with City on 41 points, Liverpool, 40 and Chelsea on 37. The rest of the chasing teams seem well off the pace, with 4th placed Arsenal 8 points behind on 29. Betting on any clubs other than the current top three to win the league will see odds of over 100/1 at bookies such as Novibet. So it does seem that the title will go to one of Man City, Liverpool or Chelsea. But much can happen over the Christmas peroid, so lets look at these teams fixtures and see if there could be any slip ups along the way.

Man City

26th Dec - Leicester City (H) - 15:00
29th Dec - Brentford (A) - 20:15
1st Jan - Arsenal (A) - 12:30

Manchester City face one of the shortest turnarounds between the three Xmas fixturess. Time between first kick-off and third kick-off being 141.5 hours. However Man City are no longer in the EFL cup, so do not have a midweek game (Liverpool and Chelsea do on the 22nd December). Arsenal are the toughest opponents based on league position, and the Gunners have a decent home record this season. However Arsenal havent beat Man City in the league since 2015, with their only wins since being in the FA Cup. A draw could be a possibilty, but 9 points will be what Pep will be aiming for from these 3 games.

Liverpool

26th Dec - Leeds United (H) - 12:30
28th Dec - Leicester City (A) - 20:00
2nd Jan - Chelsea (A) - 16:30

Liverpool play their last xmas game on the 2nd January, a day later than Man City, with the 3 game turnaround clocking in at 172 hours. The eye is obviously drawn to the last game away against Chelsea. It's too early to start talking about title deciding games, but points will be dropped by one of these teams. Their clash earlier this season at Anfield resulted in a draw and we could see the same again, which would be no bad thing for Liverpool.

Chelsea

26th Dec - Aston Villa (A) - 17:30
29th Dec - Brighton & Hove Albion (H) - 19:30
2nd Jan - Liverpool (H) - 16:30

Chelsea, like Liverpool, play their last game on the 2nd Jan, giving a turnaround of 167 hours. Just slightly less than Liverpool's due to the different kick off times. Chelsea would hope to get 6 points before the big game at Stamford Bridge, and would be aiming for a win against Liverpool to close the gap. As mentioned, the earlier game this season resulted in a draw so Chelsea would want to improve on that being at home.