The festive stacking of luminaires is just around the corner! While most clubs had plenty of rest periods in the run-up to Gameweek 18, the rapid turnarounds are only now beginning in earnest.
Tuesday is the first of three more Gameweek deadlines to be negotiated over eight days.
This is the time of year when the rotation steps up a notch as Premier League bosses try to deal with tired legs and fatigue-related injuries.
For Fantasy managers, it’s time to get the benches in order as one or two emergency replacements may be needed.
Here we look at the lead times between league matches in the coming week. We look at the game weeks in which clubs have the least rest – which may increase the risk of rotation.
GAME WEEKS 18-21 OVERVIEW: RECOVERY DAYS
Here we can see the recovery days for each Premier League team. Our great thanks go to Legoman for the image:
Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United And Newcastle United generally have the most generous schedules.
While the Gunners have a quick turnaround in the Villa game, it’s a manageable Tuesday-Saturday-Thursday series after that.
The tricky jump for Liverpool is the 67.5 hours between matchweeks 19 and 20. Apart from that, there are ample recovery times on both sides.
Man Utd and Newcastle have identical Friday-Tuesday-Sunday-Wednesday schedules, with Gameweek 20-21’s turnaround being the quickest. Even then, that’s more than 72 hours between games.
Worst off overall? That would be so Crystal Palace, Leeds United, Sunderland And Tottenham Hotspur. All four clubs play Sunday-Thursday-Sunday-Wednesday and get two days less rest than the four previously mentioned clubs.
The Eagles are already on the ground after a busy December, while Sunderland are six men behind due to involvement in the Africa Cup of Nations.
GAME WEEK 19
- The good: Brentford, Fulham, Liverpool, Man City (all Sat-Thu)
- The not so bad: Man Utd, Newcastle (Fri-Tue), C Palace, Leeds, Sunderland, Spurs (Sun-Thu)
- The ugly: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton, Burnley, Chelsea, Everton, Nottm Forest, West Ham, Wolves (all Sat-Tues)
GAME WEEK 20
- The good: Chelsea, Everton, Man Utd, Newcastle (all Tue-Sun)
- The not so bad: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Brighton, Bournemouth, Burnley, Nottm Forest, West Ham, Wolves (all Tue-Sat)
- The ugly: Brentford, C Palace, Fulham, Leeds, Liverpool, Man City, Sunderland, Spurs (all Thu-Sun)
GAME WEEK 21
- The good: Arsenal (Sat-Thu)
- The not so bad: Aston Villa, Brighton, Bournemouth, Burnley, Wolves (all Sat-Wed), Liverpool (Sun-Thu)
- The ugly: Nottm Forest, West Ham (Sat-Tue), Brentford, Chelsea, C Palace, Everton, Fulham, Leeds, Man City, Man Utd, Newcastle, Nottm Forest, Sunderland (Sun-Wed)
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