Leeds United and Manchester City conclude Boxing Day of the English Premier League this Wednesday, which in the 2022/23 season corresponds to date 17, the first after the break for the Qatar 2022 World Cup in which the Argentine team was crowned champion.
The match, for which Pep Guardiola does not have Julián Álvarez because he is resting after being world champion with Argentina, is played from 5:00 p.m. (Argentine time) at Elland Road and is broadcast live by ESPN 2, so it is also You can see it on the digital platforms Star+, Flow, DGO and Telecentro Play.
In the betting forecasts, the favorite to keep the three points is the visiting cast with a maximum odds of 1.36. Their defeat, that is to say a victory for the local, is quoted up to 10.50 while for the draw up to 6.40 is paid.
The former team led by Marcelo Bielsa is 15th in the championship with 15 points from four wins, three draws and seven losses in 14 appearances.
Although it is not far from the teams that are currently relegated -Wolverhampton and Nottingham Forest have 13 units-, it has fewer games played. Prior to the World Cup stoppage, they beat Liverpool and Bournemouth and escaped the abyss.
Against Tottenham, they were up on the scoreboard until minute 76, but ended up losing 4-3.
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The Cityzens are third in the competition with 32 points thanks to a dozen wins, two losses and the same number of losses and they need victory to prevent Arsenal, who beat Wolverhampton 2-0 on Tuesday, from escaping at the top.
Guardiola does not have Álvarez available, but he does have Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and the rest of the stars. Most of them already played days ago in the victory in the Carabao Cup over Liverpool 3-2 to reach the quarterfinals.
In their last game before the break for the Middle East ecumenical event, Manchester City lost 2-1 to Brentford at the Etihad Stadium. In this context, they will seek to recover from said fall and avoid reaping another defeat.
Since December 2018, the team has not given up in two consecutive games in the English league.
A fact emboldens him to dream of beating the Gunners with more than 50% of the fixture to go: on three occasions -2014, 2019 and 2021- he arrived at Christmas without being the leader of the Premier League, and was champion.
For Riyad Mahrez, Arsenal is not the only rival in the fight for the British crown: “We have to start at full speed.
We are not at the top of the table, which is where we want to be. We are going to take it game by game, but our goal is another title.
There are many strong teams in England. We can win the title, but we don't just have to focus on Arsenal, even though they have done very well so far. If we want to win the league we have to be ready when the competition starts up again”.
The last two times the two teams met was last season with City wins: 7-0 at home in December 2021 and 4-0 away in April 2022. In the 2020/21 Premier League, it was a draw 1 to 1 in the first round and victory for Leeds in the following 2 to 1.
These are the four closest antecedents because prior to those duels they met in 2013 in the FA Cup with a 4-0 victory for Manchester City.
What is Boxing Day?
'Boxing Day' is a holiday in Great Britain, which is celebrated the day after each Christmas, that is, December 26.
During this day, donations and gifts to people with fewer economic resources are promoted, hence its name, which translated into Spanish means "Day of the Boxes". On this date, the Premier League, considered by many to be the best soccer league in the world, has a packed schedule of games.
It is believed that the origin of this holiday dates back to the 19th century, when it was decided that, in the event that Christmas fell on a Sunday, workers would have an extra day to rest, celebrate and enjoy their free time.
This became a tradition and became part of the British festive calendar.
The first game played on that date was Sheffield against Hallam, the oldest clubs in the world, in 1860, although the tradition began to build from the match between Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion in the 1888-89 season.
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