The festive fixture pile-up is upon us! While most clubs had ample periods of rest heading into Gameweek 18, the quick turnarounds start in earnest now.
Tuesday will be the first of three more Gameweek deadlines to negotiate in the space of eight days.
This is the time of year when rotation ratchets up a notch, as Premier League bosses attempt to manage weary legs and fatigue-influenced injuries.
For Fantasy managers, it’s a time to get benches in order as one or two emergency substitutes may be needed.
Here, we take a look at turnaround times between league fixtures over the coming week or so. In doing so, we will look at the Gameweeks in which clubs have the least amount of rest – which potentially heightens the risk of rotation.
GAMEWEEKS 18-21 OVERVIEW: RECOVERY DAYS
Here we can see the recovery days for each Premier League team. Our huge thanks go to Legomane for the graphic:
Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Newcastle United have the most generous schedules overall.
While the Gunners have a quick turnaround to the Villa game, it’s a manageable Tuesday-Saturday-Thursday run thereafter.
Liverpool’s tricky jump is the 67.5 hours between Gameweeks 19 and 20. Other than that, there are liberal recovery times on either side.
Man Utd and Newcastle have identical Friday-Tuesday-Sunday-Wednesday schedules, with the Gameweek 20-21 turnaround the quickest. Even then, that’s over 72 hours between games.
The worst off overall? That would be Crystal Palace, Leeds United, Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur. All four clubs play Sunday-Thursday-Sunday-Wednesday, getting two days fewer rest than the four clubs previously mentioned.
The Eagles are already running on fumes after a busy December, while Sunderland are six men down due to Africa Cup of Nations involvement.
GAMEWEEK 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-Tue)
GAMEWEEK 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)
GAMEWEEK 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)
