Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham in crucial matches

In Sunday’s first game, Arsenal travel to Villa Park to face rock-bottom Aston Villa with the opportunity to go atop the Premier League table, at least until Monday’s game between table-toppers Leicester City and Chelsea.

Published : Dec 13, 2015 15:06 IST , Chennai

Olivier Giroud will be looking to continue his scoring streak.
Olivier Giroud will be looking to continue his scoring streak.
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Olivier Giroud will be looking to continue his scoring streak.

In Sunday’s first game, Arsenal travel to Villa Park to face rock-bottom Aston Villa with the opportunity to go atop the Premier League table, at least until Monday’s game between table-toppers Leicester City and Chelsea.

Four days after securing passage to the Round of 16 in the Champions League in fine style, beating Olympiakos 3-0 courtesy a Giroud hat-trick, Arsene Wenger made it clear the players need to focus on the game in hand. "It's very important after Wednesday that we show we can focus on the Premier League," he said. "It was a fantastic performance that got us through in the end. We are in a strong position.

"We need to move from one competition to another with the same level of performance and focus," he was quoted as saying by premierleague.com . The match at Villa Park will see Wenger come up against fellow Frenchman Remi Garde, whom he managed at Arsenal between 1996 and 1999.

Europa League high-fliers Tottenham and Liverpool have the chance to move to fourth and seventh respectively. Spurs host relegation-threatened Newcastle United and the match presents the perfect opportunity for the North London club to leapfrog Manchester United to fourth after the Reds crashed to a shock 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth, on Saturday night.

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side will be looking to bounce back from last Sunday’s embarrassing defeat to Newcastle as they host Tony Pulis’ West Brom at Anfield. Playmaker Philippe Coutinho returns to the starting eleven after he made a cameo appearance in the middle of the week. He was out with a hamstring injury prior to the Europa League fixture at Sion.

However, Daniel Sturridge is ruled out after suffering a hamstring strain at Newcastle last weekend.

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