Simon Giles: Fulham should enjoy festive home comforts but Toffees face tricky run

The adage that the festive period is the most wonderful time of the year does not always ring true for football managers, who have to navigate the unique demands of the busiest spell of the British football calendar.

The toll on players has come under scrutiny, given the number of high-profile injuries, as the domestic and international fixture lists continue to grow and games are played with increasing intensity.

Thankfully, those instances in which teams would have to play two games within 48 hours are a thing of the past and the Premier League TV scheduling appears fairer this season. 

However, there are still a couple of potentially favourable or tricky spots worth highlighting in the top flight. The quickest turnaround that teams will face is two blank days between matches and every club bar one has at least one of those.

The exception is Aston Villa, who benefit from an extra day between their middle two games of the festive period, handing them a nice advantage over Brighton, their opponents on December 30.

In total, eight Premier League clubs face the challenge of only two rest days before taking on an opposing team who will have had longer to recover.

In the case of Tottenham, Manchester United, Newcastle and Brentford, that is due to their participation in this week's EFL Cup quarter-finals and Brentford are the only team who face this disadvantage twice.

Last weekend's 5-0 mauling of bottom club Southampton was only Spurs' second win in six games following a European fixture and they face the same Thursday-to-Sunday turnaround this week when they host leaders Liverpool on Sunday.

The Reds benefit both from facing less demanding quarter-final opponents – they beat Southampton on Wednesday before Tottenham's clash with Manchester United on Thursday – and from an extra day between games.

Brentford's fixture against Arsenal has been moved to New Year's Day, which means both clubs will have to overcome a significant rest deficit for their subsequent match. The Bees concede three days' rest advantage to Southampton while Arsenal will have two days' less rest than Brighton.

The Gunners produced one of their flattest performances of last season in the exact same circumstances, losing 2-1 to a fresher Fulham side at the end of December.

The Brentford and Brighton fixtures are back-to-back road games and Mikel Arteta's side are one of only four teams to play three away matches.

Ipswich's clash with Chelsea on December 30 is another notable spot. Not only will the Tractor Boys have had one day fewer to recover, but the match comes just a few days after their daunting visit to Arsenal.

Leicester face Liverpool and Manchester City, with just a couple of days in between, in a similarly difficult stretch.

But Everton have arguably the toughest run of all as they play Chelsea, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth. Not only are the Toffees the only team who face four top-half sides but all their opponents are currently in the top six.

It has been an unpredictable season, so it would not be a surprise if a few teams suffer a physical or mental 'let-down' having emptied the tank to try and get a result a few days earlier, particularly with the middle rounds of games coming close together for most sides.

Utilising squad depth will be key and clubs who enter the period with a lengthy injury list are likely to be weakened further.

Along with Villa, one of the other big logistics 'winners' are Fulham. Marco Silva's men can look forward to three games at Craven Cottage and will hope to consolidate their top-half position with home victories over struggling Southampton and Ipswich.

The Cottagers face minimal travel disruption as their one away fixture is just down the road at rivals Chelsea.

The Blues are the division's form team and they will be optimistic of maintaining that status going into the new year.

Chelsea's only shortened turnaround, following Thursday's Conference League clash against Shamrock Rovers, is effectively negated by them usually playing a B team in Europe and their domestic fixtures look inviting as they are the only team who have three games against bottom-six opponents.

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