日批在线视频_内射毛片内射国产夫妻_亚洲三级小视频_在线观看亚洲大片短视频_女性向h片资源在线观看_亚洲最大网

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Sports
Home / Sports / Soccer

Villa faces Chelsea test as Premier League title race heats up

Updated: 2025-12-26 10:33
Share
Share - WeChat
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery reacts during an English Premier League match against Manchester United at Villa Park on Sunday. Reuters

LONDON — Aston Villa faces a tough challenge at Chelsea on Saturday after muscling its way into the Premier League title race alongside Arsenal and Manchester City.

The Gunners, top of the tree at Christmas, host Brighton, while Pep Guardiola's in-form City travels to Nottingham Forest.

With Mohamed Salah away on AFCON duty, Liverpool boss Arne Slot is grappling with a striker crisis after Alexander Isak fractured his leg.

Meanwhile, much to manager Ruben Amorim's dismay, Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes also faces a spell on the sidelines.

We look at three talking points ahead of the festive fixtures:

Emery on the charge

Unai Emery's third-placed Villa is still considered a rank outsider for the Premier League title even though it is just three points behind leader Arsenal.

Villa's 2-1 home win against Manchester United was its 10th consecutive victory in all competitions — the first time it has achieved the feat as a top-flight team since 1914.

One of the major reasons for its recent success is the form of England midfielder Morgan Rogers, who failed to register a single goal involvement in his first seven matches in all competitions.

Now it is a different story: he has recorded 11 goal involvements in his past 15 appearances and the quality of his goals has been striking.

Rogers' seven Premier League goals this season have come from just 2.86 expected goals (xG) — a metric used to determine how likely a player is to convert a chance.

But soccer analyst Opta gives Villa just a five percent chance of becoming English champion for the first time since 1981.

Emery's men have an opportunity to silence the doubters when they take on fourth-placed Chelsea, followed by a match at Arsenal just days later.

Slot's goals headache

In the early weeks of the season, Arne Slot would probably have envisaged Salah and Isak as two of his first-choice attackers.

Now the Liverpool boss has neither — Salah is with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations, while Isak faces at least two months on the sidelines after fracturing his leg against Tottenham.

Slot has steadied the ship at Anfield after a shocking run of six defeats in seven Premier League matches that left Liverpool's title defense in tatters.

A run of three wins and two draws in five league games has lifted the reigning champion into fifth spot, but there will be concerns over where the goals are going to come from ahead of the visit of bottom club Wolves.

Isak's absence will heap more pressure on the shoulders of the team's top scorer Hugo Ekitike. The summer signing has netted eight times in the Premier League — twice the tallies of Salah and Cody Gakpo.

No captain fantastic

Fernandes has been a shining light and virtually ever-present during Manchester United's recent lean years.

But United boss Amorim is going to have to plan for a period without his talisman, after the Portugal midfielder pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury in his side's 2-1 defeat at Villa Park on Sunday.

While the prognosis is unclear, Amorim has already ruled Fernandes out of United's clash against Newcastle at Old Trafford on Friday (Saturday, Beijing time), among a list of absentees, with the Portuguese boss urging the rest of his squad to "step up" in the absence of his "impossible to replace" captain.

"It's massive," defender Diogo Dalot told Sky Sports. "We don't know how bad it is, but for him to come off (in) the game, we know how tough he is."

Playmaker Fernandes has five goals and seven assists in the Premier League this season for the inconsistent Red Devils, who are also without top-scorer Bryan Mbeumo, on AFCON duty with Cameroon.

Fixtures:

Saturday (11 pm Beijing time unless stated)

Manchester United vs Newcastle (4 am); Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City (8:30 pm); Arsenal vs Brighton; Brentford vs Bournemouth; Burnley vs Everton; Liverpool vs Wolverhampton; West Ham vs Fulham.

Sunday

Chelsea vs Aston Villa (1:30 am); Sunderland vs Leeds (10 pm).

Monday

Crystal Palace vs Tottenham (12:30 am).

AFP

Most Popular

Highlights

What's Hot
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1994 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 人人爽人人爽人人 | 伊人网在线视频观看 | 黄色一级视频免费 | 99久久久精品 | 国产极品久久 | 青青操av在线 | 四虎视频国产精品免费入口 | 亚洲国产中文字幕在线 | 欧美亚洲精品在线 | 午夜视频免费 | 欧美日韩一级视频 | 蜜桃av噜噜一区二区三区 | 日本专区| 午夜欧美视频 | 国产精品av久久久久久无 | 日韩精品视频免费在线观看 | 福利一区二区视频 | 欧美成人二区 | 神马香蕉久久 | 午夜黄| 国偷自拍第113页 | 99午夜视频 | 欧美日韩久久 | 欧美黑人一级爽快片淫片高清 | 一区二区三区视频免费看 | 日韩av免费播放 | 在线观看黄色片 | 亚洲色图 欧美 | 亚洲精品一区二三区 | 在线观看免费黄色网址 | 香蕉视频在线网站 | 亚洲国产色图 | 欧美日韩性视频 | 麻豆视频播放 | 综合网伊人 | 最新中文字幕在线播放 | 欧美一级片在线免费观看 | 日韩欧美亚洲精品 | 五月婷婷视频在线 | 国产成人精品777777 | 中文字幕在线观看网站 |