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For most people, December is a time to relax, eat to your heart’s content and watch festive films like Die Hard. But that outlook does not apply where the Premier League is concerned.
Christmas and the New Year bring more action, not less, and the month can often define a team’s entire season. There can be tough travel and harder games. Every team has seven league matches to overcome.
So how does each team fare over December? Sportsmail has taken a look at their slate of fixtures and analysed who has it simple and which teams face rough months.
Arsenal have been imperious at the Emirates recently, which is why they will look at home fixtures against Manchester United and Liverpool positively. Their longest trip is a visit to West Brom - not bad at all - and they play two London teams away from home.
The fixtures will pile up though. They are competing on three fronts already this season. West Ham in the League Cup represents an opportunity to reach a semi-final. They have already wrapped up top spot in their group in the Europa League and BATE will undoubtedly face a second, if not third, string side.
It is a good thing Bournemouth have improved their form recently - barring the Burnley defeat - because December is a tough month. Away games against Manchester United and Manchester City are unlikely to bring Eddie Howe’s side much in the way of points. And for any fans travelling to United, an 8pm kick-off is a nightmare.
At home it will not get much easier. Liverpool will be a tough test and Everton could be on an upwards curve under a new manager. West Ham and Southampton should be winnable fixtures. And there is not much travelling involved either.
Brighton will spend a lot of December trekking up and down the country. Trips to Huddersfield and Newcastle represent long slogs for a team from the south coast of England. They are fortunate that their other away games are only in London - against Spurs and Chelsea - a relatively easy trip in terms of distance if not opposition.
At home, it would be disappointing for them if they did not manage to pick up some points against the trio of Liverpool, Watford and Burnley, although all three have been flying this season. It could pan out to be a difficult month.
Gone are the days when Burnley would have viewed any trip away from Turf Moor with trepidation. And over December, barring a visit to the AMEX Stadium to play Brighton, they will not exactly be clocking up the miles.
Games against Spurs and Manchester United will be tough, but around those two encounters, Burnley could pick up some serious points over the month. It would not be a humongous shocker to see them still in the top six come the turn of the new year.
Chelsea have the same problem as Arsenal - they are playing across three competitions in December. And, even worse, their Champions League situation is not wrapped up. They have to beat Atletico Madrid to be guaranteed top spot in Group C.
That could mean tired legs among a thin squad. Even so, they will look kindly on a fixture list that does not see them play a single team in the Premier League’s top nine. Brighton - 10th - at home represents their toughest league test based on the season so far.
Discounting the end of the month, Crystal Palace will be hopeful of managing to pick up some points over December. The only problem is that so many of the winnable games - West Brom, Leicester and Swansea - are on the road. On the plus side, they have a minimum of three days between each game.
That said, Arsenal and Manchester City’s trips to Selhurst Park will be difficult to get anything from. That is especially the case when it comes to City, who beat them 5-0 at the Etihad.
The 4-0 win against West Ham has probably changed Everton’s outlook about the next month. Games against Huddersfield and Swansea suddenly look winnable. An away trip to Bournemouth is the longest domestic distance they will need to cover.
The one issue is how they balance Liverpool, a derby, and Newcastle, which might be the more important game given their current predicament, over three days. Apollon Limassol would usually be an inconvenience, but if new boss Sam Allardyce takes any players who are likely to trouble his team it would be a real shock.
It has been a decent start to the season for David Wagner’s side, but December could be quite a tough month. Long trips to Watford and Southampton over successive weekends are not something they or their fans will be looking forward to. And they are probably visiting Everton at the wrong time.
At home, they will view Brighton, Stoke and Burnley as positive fixtures to have on their plate. And while Chelsea will be less than easy, they have shown their capacity to challenge the big teams over games against City and United.
Leicester’s run of three games in a week - including a long trip to Southampton, and two home matches against Crystal Palace and Manchester City - represents a little bit of a fixture pile-up. But the visit to St. Mary’s is the most time they will spend on the road.
Games against Burnley, Newcastle and Crystal Palace are all quite winnable, and could give Claude Puel a boost in his still relatively new role. Games against City and United one after another will not exactly be fun.
The positive: five of their eight games are at Anfield. And they should be looking at those 15 points available to them in the Premier League and thinking about collecting all of them. The only potentially difficult match at home comes against Everton, and the Toffees’ own record at Anfield over recent seasons has been terrible.
In terms of fixtures, it is a shame for the Reds that they still need a result against Spartak Moscow. And having three away games against Brighton, Bournemouth and Arsenal means they will have to do more travelling than they might have hoped. It is also a lot to ask of fans in a month.
It is hard to picture any game being particularly tough for Manchester City right now. But the match against Manchester United at Old Trafford is probably a season-defining one. Win that and the title looks like it will definitely be heading to the Etihad.
Which means they need to be careful about how much energy they expend before a tough trip to Swansea and the visit of Spurs, who are no scrubs. Away matches against Newcastle and Crystal Palace over four days caps off what could be a slightly tough away run.
This is a big month for Man United. If they nail their big games they could find themselves close behind Pep Guardiola’s side. Lose against Arsenal and City and they will find it very tough to overhaul their local rivals and win the Premier League.
Aside from that, the month is pretty tame. They should be able to beat Bournemouth, West Brom, Leicester and Southampton. The trip to the Emirates is also the longest distance they have to cover and it comes at the start of the month.
Newcastle do not have it easy by any stretch of the imagination. Games against Chelsea and Arsenal away from home are long treks for a team from the north east. And hosting City is not something any team in the top flight will look forward to.
Add in the trip to London to play West Ham on December 23 - which will not be convenient for their fans - and the festive period could turn out to be a long slog for Rafa Benitez and his troops. Sam Allardyce will also be desperate to get something against his old team on December 13.
It will not be an easy December for Mauricio Pellegrino and the Saints. They face four of the top six. And games against Chelsea, Spurs and Manchester United away from home make that all the tougher - that’s three of seven games that may just be write offs.
At the least, they do not have to do much travelling around the country over the month. Chelsea and Tottenham are the longest trips they will face. And Huddersfield at home is a game they would hope to pick up three points from. They should also be excited about the Bournemouth game.
Stoke fans lost a bit of patience with Mark Hughes over the last two games. It will probably come as a slight boost that their home matches over December are so winnable then. They should hope to pick up points from games against Swansea, West Ham and West Brom.
The problem is on the road. Spurs, Burnley and Chelsea are tough trips and Huddersfield are no pushovers. The other plus is that they will not exactly be covering much ground over the month.
A lot of games are long jaunts for Swansea, simply because of their geographical location. Even so, visits to Liverpool and Watford over four days at the end of the month will not be fun for Paul Clement’s side - especially as both games are likely to be tough.
They may also come up against Everton at the wrong time. At the least, West Brom and Crystal Palace could be winnable games but City’s visit will be hard.
December could have been a hard month for Spurs. Their progression in the Champions League as group winners means they can write off the game against APOEL, which lessens the strain on their fitness. Even so, their recent form has been poor, and they cannot view games away at Watford, City and Burnley as positively as they would have done a few weeks ago.
Burnley aside, there is not much travelling. And at home, they should be able to beat the likes of Stoke, Brighton and Southampton. While West Ham is a derby, nothing about David Moyes’s reign so far suggests they will trouble Spurs.
Fans will be rejoicing about Watford’s game on December 23, a simple and potentially fun trip to Brighton. The rest of the month is also quite kind to supporters and the team, as their longest journey by far is a trip to Burnley - not exactly the other end of the country.
At home, they will be hoping for a decent return against Huddersfield, Leicester and Swansea. And given the form they have been in, Spurs will probably view the trip to Vicarage Road with a little bit of trepidation.
Crystal Palace aside, Alan Pardew has not been handed a kind slate of home fixtures for his first month as West Brom manager. United and Arsenal will inevitably be hard games, and Everton, based on Wednesday night, have more about them than the rest of the season has suggested.
Trips to Liverpool and Stoke are not exactly long distances, but Swansea preceeding the Liverpool game could make it tough in terms of tiredness.
God, it doesn’t look kind for David Moyes does it? A run of games against Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal over 10 days to follow a humbling at Goodison Park is not something he would have hoped for. And the month is capped off by an away game against Tottenham. It could be painful.
Away visits to Stoke and Bournemouth will not be easy either, although neither team is on exceptional form. West Ham will only really see the Newcastle game as eminently winnable of their slate of festive matches.
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