After a month-long break of club football due to the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup, the 2022/2023 football season is set to resume this festive season.

The FIFA World Cup, which took place in Qatar from 20 November, saw Argentina lift the trophy after defeating France at the final on Sunday, 18 December 2022.

With the World Cup done, the football season is set to resume with the Premier League with fixtures taking place on 26 and 27 December over the traditional boxing day period. Arsenal are the current league leaders with 37 points after a strong start to a Premier League season this season. Also in the top 4 are last season’s winners Manchester City, led by their talismanic striker Erling Haaland who will look to pick up where he left off by adding to his impressive 18 goals in 12 games – the current Champions are 5 points behind the Gunners.

This season’s surprise package Newcastle, find themselves in third, 1 point above Tottenham Hotspur who complete the top 4.

English Premier League fans can look forward to the following fixtures when the league returns this festive season:

Monday, 26 December 2022

Brentford vs Spurs

Crystal Palace vs Fulham

Everton vs Wolves

Leicester vs Newcastle

Southampton vs Brighton

Aston Villa vs Liverpool

Arsenal vs Liverpool

Tuesday, 27 December 2022

Chelsea vs Bournemouth

Manchester United vs Nottingham Forest

LaLiga will be the next competition to return with a two-horse race between El Clasico rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid at the top. Barcelona are currently 2 points ahead of their rivals and will be looking to extend their good run of form when the season resumes. Madrid will have their eyes on a historic 36th LaLiga title backed by Carlo Ancelotti who is the first and only manager ever to have won league titles in all of Europe’s top five leagues.

Spain’s top league resumes with the following fixtures:

Thursday, 29 December 2022

Girona vs Rayo Vallecano

Real Betis vs Athletic Bilbao

Atletico Madrid vs Elche

Friday, 30 December 2022

Getafe vs Real Mallorca

Celta Vigo vs Sevilla

Cadiz vs Almeria

Valladolid vs Real Madrid

Saturday, 31 December

Barcelona vs Espanyol

Real Sociedad vs Osasuna

Villareal vs Valencia

The Serie A season gets underway on the 4th of January 2023. Currently, Napoli is a massive 8 points clear at the top, thanks to some great goal-scoring by Nigerian superstar Victor Osimhen. AC Milan, Juventus, and Lazio complete the top 4 and will be looking to stop Napoli from winning their first title since 1990.

The trio will not want to lose their UEFA Champions League positions making this a thrilling second half of the campaign.

Serie A fixtures are as follows:

Salernitana vs AC Milan

Sassuolo vs Sampdoria

Torino vs Verona

Spezia vs Atalanta

Roma vs Bologna

Lecce vs Lazio

Fiorentina vs Monza

Cremonese vs Juventus

Udinese vs Empoli

Inter vs Napoli.

(The Guardian)