After the end of the Men’s World Cup, club football is slowly getting back in to full swing. We did get a day off in most places on Sunday to celebrate Christmas, but there were fixtures galore on Boxing Day. So, this week’s column is out on Tuesday, recapping the action from the last four days.
By Neel Shelat
🏴 England: Arsenal 3-1 West Ham United
After just over six weeks away due to the World Cup, the Premier League returned with a bumper fixture list on Boxing Day. The last of the day’s matches was a London derby between league leaders Arsenal and West Ham United, who were just hovering above the relegation zone.
The visitors got off to a decent start, keeping their opponents at bay in a 4-4-2 mid block and looking to pose a threat on the counter. They got the opener in the 27th minute after Jarrod Bowen was clipped by William Saliba in the box, allowing Saïd Benrahma to score from the penalty spot. They remained in the lead at half-time, but the pressure on them was increasing as their defensive block sunk deeper.
Unsurprisingly, it cracked pretty quickly in the second period. Less than 10 minutes in, Martin Ødegaard dragged a long-distance shot wide but only to the feet of Bukayo Saka, who coolly slotted it past the goalkeeper. Five minutes later, Arsenal were in front as Gabriel Martinelli made a bit of room for himself and fired in a near-post finish from the left, although Łukasz Fabiański must be blamed for letting it in.
Eddie Nketiah was starting up front for the Gunners in the absence of Gabriel Jesus, and he eventually got on the scoresheet in the 69th minute. He did so with a lovely turn and finish after a superb team move. Arsène Wenger was watching on at the Emirates Stadium for the first time since leaving his job as Arsenal’s manager, and he would have surely been reminded of the glory days by that goal.
It was a very convincing second half performance in all departments from the Gunners, so they sealed a thoroughly deserved win to mark their return to action.
🇧🇪 Belgium: Kortrijk 1-0 Genk
There was a bit of a managerial merry-go-round in the Belgian Pro League through this de facto winter break, so there were four managers making their league debuts for their new clubs (or return to be more accurate in the case of Felice Mazzù at Charleroi). Among them was Bernd Storck at Kortrijk, who started off by facing one of his former clubs – the runaway league leaders, Genk.
After a defeat on the opening day of the season, Genk went on to win 15 of their remaining 16 games in the first half of the campaign, dropping points just once in a goalless draw with STVV. This helped them amass a double-digit lead at the top of the table before the break, so their chances of a first title in four years were looking good.
Kortrijk, on the other hand, were in the relegation zone and just a point off the foot of the table, so they were staring at a battle for top-flight survival in 2023. That’s why Storck had been brought in, and his tenure got off to a perfect start. He watched his side go toe-to-toe with the best team in the country and come away with a win that cannot be called undeserved thanks to an 83rd-minute winner from Felipe Avenatti.
In spite of this win, Kortrijk remain in the bottom three but are just two points off safety now, and only four behind 13th-placed Eupen – the side that sacked him in October.
🇹🇷 Türkiye: Trabzonspor 2-0 Fenerbahçe
The Turkish Süper Lig has returned to action, continuing across the weekend as most other European leagues paused. The headline fixture of this round was the last one on Christmas Eve, as defending champions Trabzonspor hosted league leaders Fenerbahçe.
Jorge Jesus has primarily used a 4-1-3-2 formation since taking over at the start of the season, but he switched to a 3-4-2-1 for this game. That seemed to pay off in the first half, as Fenerbahçe looked impressive on the ball, created a few good openings and even hit the woodwork once, all while restricting Trabzonspor quite well.
Their failure to make this count on the scoreline would prove costly. The turning point came just before the hour mark when Miguel Crespo was sent off after receiving a second yellow card. The home side wasted no time in making the most of their numerical advantage, taking the lead through Maximiliano Gómez just a few minutes later.
The 10 men of Fenerbahçe couldn’t really pose a substantial threat for an equaliser even after they switched to a back-four, so the then-inevitable result was sealed deep into stoppage time when Djaniny made it 2-0 to Trabzonspor.
This was the first time in over 14 years that Trabzonspor kept a clean sheet and won against Fenerbahçe in the league, closing the gap to their opponents down to three points.
This result also gave Galatasaray the chance to dethrone their arch-rivals Fenerbahçe from the top of the table, which they took with a win over İstanbulspor.
🇦🇺 Australia: Western United 1-0 Melbourne Victory
In the previous edition of the column, we covered a Melbourne derby that turned very sour amidst what already was a tough time in Australian football.
There was another derby scheduled on Boxing Day, featuring Victory again as they took on Western United in the Westgate derby. This game looked a lot different, as Melbourne Victory supporters were technically banned from attending this game, while their active end was closed. The first few rows of Western United’s active end were tarped off as well, and only their club members or those who had purchased a ticket before 23 December were allowed to enter the stadium. There was a strong police presence at the match too.
These are just a few interim measures that have been taken as Football Australia’s investigation of last week’s events continues and looks sure to result in sanctions for supporters of both Victory and City. As a result, we might have to get used to watching matches at AAMI Park such as this one, where the stadium was hardly a quarter-full with so quiet an atmosphere that you could hear the players and coaches shouting on TV.
The match itself was not particularly pulsating either, as United came away with a narrow 1-0 win after a first half goal from a corner by right-back Joshua Risdon. They should be quite pleased with their performance, though, as they played a man short for about an hour after Nikolai Topor-Stanley was sent off.
This result makes it back-to-back victories for the defending champions, who are now level on points with Victory and well within touching distance of the top six after finding themselves at the foot of the table a couple of weeks ago.
Perhaps their title defence is properly getting started now.
🇫🇷 France: Le Havre 1-0 Bordeaux
Ligue 1 returns on Wednesday, but Ligue 2 did resume this weekend with a full round of matches played on Boxing Day. The headline fixture saw the top two collide as Le Havre hosted Bordeaux.
Le Havre are one of the oldest French football clubs and were the first non-Parisian side to win the top flight title when they did so in 1899, but after successfully defending their crown in the following season, they have failed to reach those heights again. They remained Ligue 1 regulars in the latter half of the 20th century, but have been in the second tier since their most recent relegation in 2009.
As the French top flight is being trimmed to 18 teams, there will only be two sides going up from Ligue 2 this season, so the promotion battle is even tougher than usual. Still, Le Havre seem to have a very good chance of returning to the big time at the end of this season, as they went into the World Cup break with a four-point lead at the top of the table.
That advantage was extended at the end of this fixture, as Amir Richardson’s early strike enabled the home team to take all three points from this fixture even though they spent the last half-hour or so down to 10 men.
Le Havre’s lead at the top is only up to five points, though, as Sochaux have moved into second after beating Quevilly-Rouen later that night.
🏴 Wales: Bala Town 2-1 Airbus UK Broughton
We are back in the UK for our last match of this week, which features a very unique story from Wales.
Airbus UK Broughton, once the works team of a factory which makes wings for Airbus airlines, have played 16 matches this season, which means they have reached the halfway stage of their league campaign. Yet, their points tally reads -2, making them the only European top-flight club with a negative points tally this season.
The reason behind that is that Airbus fielded an ineligible player in one of their league matches in early September, which they went on to lose anyway. Still, this drew a three-point deduction in accordance with the Cymru Premier rules.
Points deductions are not particularly unique, but the trouble for Airbus is that they have been really struggling this season. They have lost all but one of their matches – a 4-4 draw in late September – meaning they still have not recovered to a points tally of zero. They are 13 points adrift at the bottom of the table and 20 from safety, so relegation seems an inevitability at this stage.
That would not be something new for the Wingmakers, as they have become a bit of a yo-yo club of late. They finished last in the 2019/20 season of the Cymru Premier, but came back up this year after winning the Cymru North.
What they will want to avoid, though, will be finishing on a negative points tally. We dug through the archives, so to the best of our knowledge, the last European top-flight team who did so were Chernomorets Burgas Sofia in the 2006/07 season of the Bulgarian A Group, who were also docked three points and managed just one draw all season.
Cover Image from IMAGO