What a feverish dream sequence it has been since the Premier League drifted out of consciousness, its head swimming with snatched memories of Alejandro Garnacho and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Was that really Garnacho with a scintillating late winner at Fulham, a solo goal in the style of Ronaldo on a day when Manchester United’s absent icon started talking his way out of Old Trafford via an interview with Piers Morgan?
Seems like it was. But it was hard to focus as the floor caved in to send everyone tumbling into the moral maze of a World Cup funded by corruption and built by migrant workers and culminating in perhaps the greatest final, followed by delirious celebrations in Buenos Aires and a global love-in with Lionel Messi.
Arsenal will be hoping to resume their fine form as the Premier League returns post-World Cup
Then, eight chilly Carabao Cup ties and one cold turkey later, and the Premier League is blinking back to life. Stretching, rubbing sleep from its eyes and making a mental note never to do that again.
Arsenal are top, in case you forgot. Five points clear of Manchester City. And, no, they haven’t been smoking anything at the Emirates. Mikel Arteta’s team were outstanding for three months but the World Cup came with nightmarish consequences.
Gabriel Jesus, central to their radical upturn in fortunes this season, reported back from Qatar with damaged knee ligaments, and is out for weeks after surgery.
Arsenal will miss him, just as Tottenham will miss Richarlison. Harry Maguire has confidence tanks refuelled. Erling Haaland and Mo Salah have been resting and building fitness.
These are the random physical factors but what of the psychological effects? Who is flat from disappointment? Who is post-euphoric and struggling for motivation?
Arsenal star Gabriel Jesus is set to be out injured for three months after suffering a knee injury
Mesut Ozil and Per Mertesacker found it tough to get going again at Arsenal after winning the World Cup in 2014. Hugo Lloris ran into uncharacteristic trouble on a drink-drive charge, showered with drinks by fans in a French restaurant only 40 days after lifting the prize in 2018. How will the Argentina players react if they ever make it back to their clubs from the street parties?
This year, Lloris is among those trying to pick themselves up after falling short. His Spurs team-mate Harry Kane must overcome a costly penalty miss.
Kane will stand over another penalty soon enough in Tottenham colours, and is exactly the type to thrive under pressure and the wind-up merchants but this is new territory.
What of those who went away for a month and did not play? This is the category of player the clubs were most concerned about. Those out of sight and out of their control and yet not getting a steady fix of competitive football.
William Saliba, another key to Arsenal’s fine start to the season, has played half an hour in the last six weeks. Arteta’s goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale has not played in this time. Can they be at their sharpest, when it comes to making those split-second decisions in the heat of the contest?
Harry Kane was back in training on Thursday after 10 days off after the 2022 World Cup
Kane missed England’s decisive second penalty in a 2-1 World Cup quarter-final loss to France
Arsenal dropped only five points in their first 14 games and they return to a testing sequence, away at Brighton and Tottenham in between home fixtures against West Ham, on Boxing Day, Newcastle and Manchester United.
Manchester City suffered a shock defeat at home by Brentford last month, with two goals by Ivan Toney less than a week before charges that he broke FA betting rules on 232 occasions. City seemed over the Bees’ sting when they beat Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on Thursday. The season could hinge on a run of four games in one January fortnight for Pep Guardiola, when his side face Chelsea twice in three days, then a derby at Old Trafford and a visit from Spurs.
Before then, the title defence will continue against Leeds on Wednesday, by which time Newcastle will have moved past them into second if they can beat much-improved Leicester.
Newcastle, even more than Brighton, were the big movers in the first stage of the season. They were among those least disturbed by the World Cup call-ups, have been sunning in Saudi Arabia and extended a winning run to seven games in the Carabao Cup against Bournemouth, on Tuesday.
Expectations are soaring on Tyneside, where Premier League football will return amid white-hot anticipation regardless of Eddie Howe’s penchant for balance and good sense. He will be conscious of Liverpool, with Salah fresh, and Manchester United, liberated by Ronaldo’s exit, building momentum after starting poorly.
Ivan Toney has been charged with an additional 30 counts of breaking FA betting rules
Toney had previously been charged over an alleged 232 breaches of the FA’s betting rules
Leicester have found a groove, can they stay in it as others around them expect an uptick under new management? Unai Emery won his first two Premier League games in charge of Aston Villa, including a 2-1 win at Brighton on a day when Alexis Mac Allister beat Emi Martinez from the spot, before their penalties prowess made them world champions.
New Southampton boss Nathan Jones will take charge of his second Premier League game as Brighton visit St Mary’s, and Julen Lopetegui will savour his first on Boxing Day as rock-bottom Wolves go to Everton.
The World Cup diverted the glare from Frank Lampard but he will have been stewing on the pain of two defeats in four days at Bournemouth before the break, and the mood inside Goodison will be far from festive if they lose.
Gary O’Neil, named as Bournemouth’s permanent boss while attention was on Qatar, takes his team to out-of-form Chelsea, who are trying to escape a run of no wins in five league games.
Nottingham Forest are showing signs of life, beating Crystal Palace on their final outing in November and slamming four past Blackburn in the Carabao Cup.
Everton’s poor run of form includes a 3-0 defeat at Bournemouth before the World Cup break
Forest go to Old Trafford, on Tuesday for a first meeting with Manchester United since 1999 when they were thrashed 8-1 and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored four in the last 10 minutes.
Ron Atkinson, in charge at the City Ground at the time, forged one of his after-dinner funnies out of that punishing defeat and the restless night that followed, with an urgent alarm call from his wife Maggie, shaking him awake when he overslept the next day.
‘Wake up Ron, it’s nine,’ she said. ‘Oh God,’ he replied groggily. ‘Not Solskjaer again, is it?’
And on the subject of Big Ron and his fever dreams, welcome back, Premier League football.
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