LONDON (Reuters) – Manchester City might have an upper hand in the race for the Premier League title in January, as their rivals are set to lose key players to the African Cup of Nations and Asia Cup.
After a hectic set of festive fixtures, there is only a six-point gap between the top five teams in the Premier League. Managers will now have to come up with contingency plans to make up for the loss of their key players.
Some managers may consider entering the transfer market to replace some of their top performers.
However, while Liverpool will be without Egyptian Mohamed Salah and Tottenham Hotspur will miss South Korea’s Son Heung-min, reigning champions Manchester City will remain unaffected.
City manager Pep Guardiola does not have any players traveling to the Ivory Coast or Qatar for the continental tournaments that begin on Jan. 13 and Jan. 12, respectively, and last for almost a month.
Leaders Liverpool, who are currently three points ahead of Aston Villa, will bid farewell to Salah, who is the joint-top scorer in the Premier League this season with 14 goals, equal with Erling Haaland.
They will also be missing combative midfielder Wataru Endo, who will join up with Japan.
“It’s a bit of a shame how he found his feet and now he goes to the Asian Cup,” manager Juergen Klopp said.
Surprise title challengers Villa will only lose squad player Bertrand Traore to Burkina Faso, but fourth-placed Arsenal will be harder hit with Mohamed Elneny (Egypt), Thomas Partey (Ghana), and Takehiro Tomiyasu (Japan) all heading off for an unspecified amount of time, depending on the progress of their nations.
Tottenham have been plagued by injuries in the last couple of months, and now manager Ange Postecoglou will have to adjust to captain Son, who has scored 12 league goals, representing South Korea. Tottenham also lose midfielder Yves Bissouma to Mali, while Pape Sarr, who was injured against Bournemouth on Sunday, is part of Senegal’s squad.
Resurgent West Ham, who are in sixth place, will be hindered by the loss of key Ghanaian midfielder Mohammed Kudus.
Manchester United’s under-pressure manager Erik Ten Hag could do without losing Andre Onana (Cameroon), Sofyan Amrabat (Morocco), and Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast) as he tries to turn around what has been a dreadful season so far.
At the other end of the table, Nottingham Forest are the worst hit as they prepare to make do without six players for the next few weeks including Ivory Coast trio Serge Aurier, Willy Boly, and Ibrahim Sangare.
Struggling Brentford will be without midfielders Saman Ghoddos (Iran) and Frank Onyeka (Nigeria) along with striker Yoane Wissa (DR Congo).
The Premier League takes a breather this weekend with the FA Cup third round taking precedence while all clubs will have one of the two following weekends off in a mini winter break.
By that stage, the group stages of the AFCON and Asia Cup will be virtually over, meaning some players may be heading back.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
