Christmas fans' appetizer is here, and over the weekend, the Premier League will usher in a "Super Sunday", with the big four clubs going head-to-head. Although a similar situation occurred last season, the strength and form of the top 4 are now closer, and the championship is unprecedentedly fierce.

Arsenal and Liverpool's unbeaten streak was broken by underdogs in the last league game and on Sunday, they will host arch-rivals Chelsea and Manchester United respectively – a London derby and an English derby. The top four have all reached the knockout stage of the Champions Cup, and they can concentrate on the league in the next two months. This "Super Sunday" is a "6-point battle" for any family.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has saved his Champions League dream by sacrificing the league, but the pressure remains on him as the two American bosses Hicks and Gillette will be on hand to discuss the future with the Spaniard. Beck knows that since he took office, Liverpool have only won Manchester United once in the FA Cup, and in the past five years, they have drawn 1 and lost 4 at home to Manchester United in the league. A further defeat at the weekend would leave the Reds nine points behind the Red Devils with one game in hand, and the title race is at stake.

Manchester United except Gary. Neville and Scholes and other old injuries, the main lineup is basically neat. The good news for the Reds is that midfielder Marcos Alonso is expected to return, but Ague and Finnan remain sidelined. Benitez, who likes to rotate, faces the conundrum of a "almost perfect" midweek game with his squad at Marseille, but United have hidden most of their main players in Rome and are aiming to use Anfield to overtake Arsenal and climb to the top of the table.

Chelsea's record at Arsenal is also quite good, with one win and two draws in three trips under Jose Mourinho. After Grant took office. The only time the Blues have faced a big team so far has been an away defeat to Manchester United in our opening game. But at that time, Grant was new to the team, and the team was not yet on track. The Blues are unbeaten in 16 games in almost 10 weeks. Meeting a big club again in such a good state is a litmus test for Grant. A win would tie the Gunners in points.

Both sides have had difficulties with their lineups. Despite Petr's return, Didier Drogba's injury and Essien's suspension have had a big impact on the Blues. For Arsenal, Robin van Persie returned to play 65 minutes on Wednesday after two months of injury. However, Van Persie admits he has not regained 100% fitness. Arsene Wenger also said the Dutchman was short of confidence. Even more important for the Gunners is the injury of the three main midfielders of Cesc Fabregas, Hleb and Flamini. Arsene Wenger revealed that he would be watching their recovery over the next two or three days and that he would "definitely take a gamble on one or two people" on Sunday, but admitted: "If you put them all on the pitch." It's too risky. ”

Monday, December 10th. On this day, Ryan Giggs knew he would stay in Manchester in midweek to watch his team-mates at Roma City complete their final Champions League group stage game. And the short-term dream of the Welshman. It was at Anfield on Sunday that he scored 101 career goals.

Liverpool, who are not far away, have already crossed the sea to the port of Marseille, and right-back Arbeloa has decided that defeat at Marseille will be the "greatest gift" to Manchester United on Sunday: "None of us can afford it. ”

It was also on this day that Arsene Wenger was unhurriedly liquidating his disciples: on Sunday, Robin van Persie and Diaby could both play, Fabrice Fabregas and Hleb? It's a bit of a hassle. And Chelsea are in the lineup. Petr Cech has no intention of beating Valencia and will be hoping to pull Arsenal at the top of the table on Sunday. Where does the champion go? There are also fights.

It seems that everyone is secretly waiting for this day. December 16th. Like some kind of ceremony, like a duel, it's a Christmas feast for the fans from the Premier League committee -- this afternoon, the Premier League's traditional top four will be battling each other, and even better, the North West and London derbies are staggered so that broadcasters will never be left in the agony of choice.

But if it weren't for Steven Gerrard's 4-0 win over Marseille in France, the feast would have been missing a protagonist. It is too early to talk about the positive impact of this victory on Liverpool. But it is undeniable that after qualifying for the Champions Cup, Liverpool has been like a wild horse, unrestrained.

Rafael Benitez said before the season that this year's Champions Cup would give way to the league. But I didn't think that this team usually only accumulated one point in the first three rounds and finished at the bottom of the group, and even qualified for the League Cup.

The American boss is angry, the elimination is a loss of 15 million pounds, do they really want Liverpool to win the league title?

If the American were to think about it on a competitive level, the American should have chosen to let Benitez go for the league and ignore the impact of the Champions Cup, but the Spaniard sacrificed the game against Reading.

In fact, the sudden change of 433 at Madeischi was not a whim of Benitez's rotation, but he specially hid Colwill and Benayoun as two full-backs for the Marseille battle.

The French side, who took the three points from Anfield, were extremely capable of breaking down the wings, but at the same time left two gaps for Liverpool. With Colwill providing two assists from the final four goals and his substitute Aurelio also instigating an attack down the left, Benitez's tactical intent was clear.

What's more, from the employment of several key battles, Benitez actually knows who is the most reliable. The backs of Ager and Carach, accompanied by Arbeloa, Fernann and Risse, midfielders Steven Gerrard and Mascherano will soon have Alonso to support, and in the two wing-back positions, Benayoun and Colwill are the first choice as long as they are not injured. Who will rotate him?

Don't worry too much about Benitez's rotation system, Reading's 433, is just a product of his compromise with the Americans. With this main squad and a few requisite rotational pieces, fans have reason to expect that Liverpool, who are finally out of the Champions League, will actually join Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United in the team to win the title.

Liverpool's strong assault is sure to make the Premier League smile from ear to ear -- because on December 16, the Premier League will be very convincingly the "world's largest league" for one day.

This season can be said to be Liverpool's nerve knife, and it can also be called a beautiful name to play with a heartbeat, in short, this team does not stop until the last moment. inexplicably fell into a desperate situation, but broke out of the encirclement with high spirits.

This year's Champions Cup group stage. How similar is it to the 2005 Istanbul final? In the first three games, the Reds were at the bottom of the group with 2 losses and 1 draw, but after coming to their senses. With three disparities of 8-0, 4-0, and 4-0 in a row, all the opponents in the group were cut down and successfully resurrected. The Times couldn't help but describe Liverpool's momentum as the Mistrol winter breeze that swept through the port of Marseille yesterday.

Benitez was fortunate that this week was crucial for his future at Anfield, as he won his first game comfortably and sealed a place in the last 16 after less than 15 minutes. It also makes the atmosphere of the life-and-death battle that was tried to render before seem redundant.

Before the game, the Daily Telegraph said that Gillette and Hicks made a special trip to Marseille to watch the "Champions Cup final". It's like two bosses holding the sword of Damocles and keeping an eye on Benitez's fate. Fortunately, the disciples were very competitive, and Benitez also praised him after the game: "I am very proud to be the manager of Liverpool, and today their performance is very good, close to perfect!" "Interestingly. In the stands of the away team, there was a banner that read "Win for money!" The Times couldn't help but be humorous: I'm afraid this is an American ghost?

After the game. The whole Liverpool team rushed to the airport to return to the UK. Benitez revealed that he did not meet the Americans in Marseille, "They didn't go into the dressing room before the game, did they call me to celebrate? I don't know, my phone is still in my bag. Benitez seemed to be relaxed and the win gave him enough confidence to meet his American boss this week. Luck did come to Liverpool on Tuesday night, and a Spanish journalist who knew him joked with a smile: "Lotto tickets are being sold for the Christmas Super Jackpot." I should give you one! ”

I thought that when I crossed the sea and came to the port of Marseille, the race would be extremely difficult. A draw only for the French team is guaranteed to qualify. Before the game, Cen Deng and other old players vowed to drive their old club out of the Champions Cup.

The tension also made the Reds generals absent-mindedly surrender when they faced Reading last weekend, waiting to be ready for the battle. As a result, in the opening 4 minutes, Liverpool found a godsend for a penalty, Gerrard received a cross from Kuyt and burst into the penalty area, central defender Giwi had no choice but to bring him down, and the captain took the penalty himself. Mandanda pounced on the ball, but Gerrard reacted quickly to score from the spot!

In the 11th minute, Torres scored the second goal. The goal was spectacular, with Colwill's pass being unremarkable, but Torres shook off the first defender with a single shot inside, only to swing past two defenders in quick succession to score the ball. This Henry-esque goal was also Torres' third personal goal in the Champions League.

I thought that a vicious battle was imminent, but I didn't expect that the overall situation had been decided in 11 minutes, and the fighting spirit of the Liverpool players was relaxed. There were few bright spots in the games that followed, and Marseille never had the momentum to equalize on the pitch, or the ability to return to heaven at all. Valboenna, who shot through Reina's goal at Anfield in the first round, looked very mediocre, and the only impression was the antics of stumbling off the line. Just after half-time, the home team used up three substitutions, but none of them could recover the decline.

At the start of the second half, Kuyt's goal completely destroyed the fighting spirit of the Marseilles. Mandanda's ball was cut off by Colwill, and the ball seemed to be inadvertently inserted past Torres, but it fell right at the feet of the Dutchman and scored with a single shot. Colwill provided one assist for each of the two strikers in this game, which is not a small credit. However, his replacement O'Lelio, despite being out of action due to injury, also played a clever pass to Babel before the end of the game, allowing the lucky player to complete the final blow.

Judging by the schedule of the rush back to Liverpool that night, Benitez didn't have much of a chance to celebrate the victory. "I'm thinking about my next opponent -- Manchester United."

Benitez ended the post-match press conference with this sentence, this tightrope, the Spaniard is not finished. The Spaniards cannot afford to lose their home game against Manchester United at the weekend, otherwise the gap between Liverpool and the top of the table could be stretched to an insurmountable 10 points.

But unexpectedly, as soon as he left the turf of the Marseille Velodrom Stadium, Gerrard received a call from his wife Curran. Congratulations from my beloved wife? No, just when Gerrard was fighting on the field and making great contributions to Liverpool's comeback, his mansion in Liverpool's Folbe district was robbed by 4 masked gangsters!

The robbery occurred at around 21 p.m. UK time on December 11, when Gerrard was still playing the second half against Marseille. Judging from the security surveillance video, the four gangsters are all white, and they smashed a gate and forcibly broke into the mansion. Curran was resting in the upstairs bedroom with his nanny for his 3 and 1 year olds. When you hear a commotion, you come downstairs to watch.

A police investigation has revealed that Mr. Curran, a fashion columnist, may be guilty of a crime: in this week's issue of Closer magazine. Curran, who only officially married Gerrard in June this year, showed off the happiness of the first Christmas after marriage, saying that her husband bought him a Cartier watch worth 10,000 pounds.

As a result, as soon as the gangsters rushed in, they asked for the watch by name, but Curran resolutely refused to say where the watch was, and in a hurry, the gangsters snatched the Rolex watch from the nanny's hand and took the keys to two famous cars. When Curran reported the crime, he said that the gangsters did not directly use violence against her, but they caused a lot of damage to the interior of the house when they rummaged through the watch.

The gangsters stayed for only 2 minutes and left in a hurry, said a resident who lived across the street from Gerald. Friends and family soon came to comfort Curran. Gerald's friend told local media: "Curran was really frightened because she felt that her privacy was being violated by strictness. But she had to be very brave for Gerald's sake. Gerald was furious when he received the call. His wife and daughter went through such pain, but he couldn't protect them because he was playing abroad. Thankfully, the two children had been sleeping upstairs without any fright. ”

Worryingly. Steven Gerrard is the eighth Liverpool home to be exposed: Gerrard's team-mates Kuyt (home to play in the Netherlands), Reina (away in the Champions League semi-finals), Crouch (to England in September 2006), Ague (home to Galatasaray), Dudek (on holiday) and Pongler have all been robbed. Plus Everton's Donny van der Meyde has suffered the same way, so much so that the media joked: "You sign with Liverpool, it's better to make sure they have someone to watch for you when you're out playing." ”

How exactly did the gangsters know the addresses of these players? There is a claim that Liverpool was hacked, as evidenced by the fact that Reese's pay stub was posted online, which contained the full address of his residence. Liverpool FC believes that the gangsters are likely hiding outside the training base and tailgating the star to find the player's home.

So are these cases related? At least Dudek's case has been solved, and Birch, a 20-year-old criminal, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison last December. But the fact that Kuyt and Reina continued to be robbed at night after Birch was imprisoned also shows that the criminal gang is not a family. The police determined that the gangsters were likely the same people who robbed Kuyt and Reina's homes.

The problem is that both Kuyt and Reina are robbing at night, and going quietly is like coming quietly. There is no precedent for intimidating the player's family. This worries Gerrard's friends: "It's getting worse and worse, someday someone will get hurt." The club should take responsibility. Now these gangsters only need to look at Liverpool's schedule to know that the players are not at home, since it is impossible to keep the game time secret, then it is necessary to send security guards to help the players watch the door when playing away! ”

Arsenal vs. Chelsea, Liverpool vs. Manchester United, the famous British Sky TV packaged the upcoming weekend as a "GrandSlam Sunday" with a strong American flavor, although some bulls are not right -- GrandSlam is meant to be a home run or a grand slam in softball, but the atmosphere of the decisive battle is quite well rendered.

In fact, it doesn't matter what you call them, the point is that the two games on Sunday can indeed play a "watershed" role in the whole Premier League process, and the reason is actually very simple: of all the possible results, the only one that will not have a decisive impact on the table shape is the two games that have been drawn, but a little common sense of probability will know that the probability of such a result is only 1 in 9.

Given the current balance of power between the Premier League's so-called "four families", it is undoubtedly impossible to predict the outcome of the game in advance, but at least for the time being, it is certain that the winner of any game can at least gain a valuable psychological advantage, if not because of it. Among them, the Gunners who are currently leading the table are the most advantageous, and once they win against London derby rivals Chelsea, even if they can't achieve a real victory, they will stage an "upgraded" Gunners battle with the hot Manchester United Red Devils.

In contrast, the most "unacceptable" of the four teams is probably the Reds Liverpool, who are seven points behind the leaders but have a game in hand, and a home defeat to North West derby rivals Manchester United will almost mean that they have lost hope of competing for the Premier League title this season, plus manager Benitez will also hold a "showdown" meeting with the club's American owners after the game. The victory or defeat of this Sunday's league is undoubtedly more "life and death".

What's more, in this season's league standings, mid-table teams pose an unprecedented threat to the "first group" (Portsmouth and Manchester City are currently tied with Liverpool on 30 points), so the Reds will fall behind if they lose. The history of the "Big Four" entrenched in the top four of the standings is likely to be over.

Of course, there is another possibility that Premier League history could be rewritten: if the two teams at the bottom of the table win at the weekend, the gap between the top four would be further narrowed, and the Premier League title race would be a spectacular one. You know, since the inception of the Premier League in 1992/1993, this is also an unprecedented pattern of winning titles.

Meanwhile, Chelsea Football Club has officially announced the signing of a new four-year contract with Afran Grant. The 52-year-old Israeli will continue to serve as the team's head coach for the next four years.

On 20 September this year, Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho parted ways with Chelsea, and Grant was appointed as interim manager the next day. Just before the club announced the official signing. Grant has just led Chelsea to three consecutive league wins without conceding a goal in three games. Although Grant started his tenure without a win in two consecutive league games, the team then recorded seven wins and one draw. In the UEFA Champions League group stage that ended this week, Chelsea qualified for the round of 16 as group winners. In addition, in the Carabao Cup, Chelsea have also progressed to the quarter-finals. FA Cup. Chelsea are coming out of the third round.

Presently. Grant's Chelsea sit third in the league, just three points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table. This weekend, there will be two big games in the Premier League, one of which is Chelsea's local derby against Arsenal and the other is Manchester United's visit to Liverpool. It can be seen that the club's signing of a new contract with Grant before the big war is of special significance.

It is worth mentioning that Chelsea have only led the table once this season in the fourth round of the league.

Chelsea are already unbeaten in 50 games at Stamford Bridge, with Grant on a 16-game unbeaten run since taking charge. This is also the biggest weight for him to become a regular.

But the Israelis must objectively admit that apart from the 6-0 thrashing of Manchester City. Chelsea's other opponents were not strong enough, with Everton being a serious opponent and contented to take a point from Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea also failed to beat Fulham at the back. As a Chelsea coach, Grant has not been tested by much. against Manchester United once, but they failed. Chelsea, who are without Frank Lampard and Drogba, have also lost to Villa and Manchester United, and drawn with Blackburn Rovers and Fulham, and their counter-attacks against injuries are not necessarily much better than other strong teams.

But this weekend, at the Emirates Stadium, facing Arsenal, who are still short of young generals, Chelsea, who have returned with many big players, are better than the Gunners, although they do not have Drogba. The result of that game will also directly determine Chelsea's league goals this season. After all, Grant has made it clear that he was going to reach the Champions League final next season, and now it seems that we can ...... this season

Ahead of Sunday's crucial Premier League game away to Liverpool, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson received bad news that the FA had imposed a two-match ban and a £5,000 fine on him for disrespecting the referee.

In Ferguson's Premier League win at Bolton Wanderers last month, Ferguson was unhappy with Bolton's aggressive style of play, especially Kevin Davies against Patrice Evra, and referee Clattenburg complained and used profanity, and as a result, Ferguson was sent to the stands by the referee at half-time.

Referee Clattenburg reported Ferguson's behavior to the FA in his referee report after the game, and the relevant FA departments also made a ruling and banned Ferguson for two games. The specific fixture starts with Manchester United's away game against West Ham on December 29, and Ferguson will not be able to direct from the sidelines when Manchester United host Birmingham City on January 1 next year.

The FA statement said: "Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson was suspended for two matches at a regular meeting yesterday, effective Friday 28 December, and fined a further £5,000. (To be continued......)