Premier League leaders Arsenal face West Ham as EPL resumes

Arsenal manr Mikel Arteta faces a challenge that dwarfs achievement of club’s surge to top of Premier League table in pre-World Cup portion of campaign: How to keep improbable run going?

Gunners are hoping to pick up ir league season where y left off six weeks ago when y welcome West Ham in late Boxing Day fixture that will conclude a program of seven matches on Monday.

Arsenal were best team in Premier League during first half of season and hold a five-point advant over Manchester City but ir task will be made that much harder without talisman Gabriel Jesus, who is recovering from a knee injury he picked up in Qatar while playing for Brazil.

In contrast, West Ham, who are 16th, have only just mand to stay out of relegation zone after a slow start that included four wins from team’s opening 15 matches, but Arteta is t taking Hammers lightly.

“We need to do that (build momentum) on pitch. We have talked a lot about it. We kw importance of starting strong and we play at home,” Arteta said. “It’s a very special day in Premier League history, it’s a very special family day to play football, it’s an incredible atmosphere that day and we want to make most of it.“

He also made a point of praising his young side’s consistency during opening 14 matches of season, a stretch that includes victories over rivals Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea. However, sterner tests lay ahead.

“Probably level that we showed and consistency we showed within that level, which with group and we have is t easy,” Arteta said. “We showed real maturity in certain moments, especially against big opponents.

“ focus is to play better every single day, to keep growing individually, collectively and to keep deserving to win matches. That is all we can hope because football is a very tricky game.“

While Arsenal do t resume ir Europa League campaign until March, FA Cup will begin in January and Arteta kws rotation will be key, especially after a number of his squad were involved at World Cup in Qatar.

Gunners are set to play six matches over next 28 days and have a similarly busy schedule in February.

“re are going to be periods where you have time to train and or periods where matches are going to come fast and you have big congested periods,” Arteta said. “It will be very important how healthy team is, how fit it is and how much rotation can help us to sustain level we want.“

In day’s first game, Tottenham travel across London to face Brentford at lunchtime with Spurs manr Antonio Conte adamant that restart of league play is coming too soon after World Cup final.

Premier League resumes just eight days after Spurs duo Hugo Lloris and Cristian Romero battled it out in Qatar for World Cup.

While Conte has already confirmed World Cup finalists will t play on Monday, Italian has a decision to make over Croatia’s Ivan Perisic as well as England pair Harry Kane and Eric Dier after trio all made last eight.

“It is a strange situation and honestly to play so quickly - only one week after World Cup - I am t really happy,” he said. “On one hand, you are happy because for my club, Tottenham, to have 12 players at World Cup it means that we are in right way to try to be competitive and to try in future to win something.

“But it is rmal that when you have so many players play a tournament like this, especially during season, that w it is t easy because physical condition is t at top.“

In day’s or games, Crystal Palace hosts Fulham in ar London derby, Everton welcomes Wolves, Newcastle visits Leicester, Brighton travels to south coast rival Southampton and Liverpool heads to Aston Villa.