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- The Assist is back with your football fix
The Assist is back with your football fix
Everton vs. Arsenal, Villa vs. Man United, Villarreal vs. Barcelona, AFCON 2025, and more!
‘Twas the weekend before Christmas and The Assist has returned to guide you through the next few days of action before a number of leagues take a well earned rest and others, well, just carry on regardless. We also look ahead to the Africa Cup of Nations, which starts in Morocco, on Sunday.
Everton vs. Arsenal
Premier League leaders Arsenal will be looking over their shoulder this weekend as they try to hold on to their position going in to Christmas week. With Manchester City now only two points below them, and Aston Villa also in top form, the Gunners can’t afford to lose on this, their first ever visit to new Everton ground, the Hill Dickinson.
Everton have won three of their last five games, keeping a clean sheet in each, but have a poor record against sides who are competing in the Champions League - losing all five such games so far, with Spurs and Newcastle the only teams who’ve won at their new stadium. David Moyes’ side look a little depleted for this one due to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s recent injury and Idrissa Gueye and Iliman Ndiaye both having gone to the AFCON.
Manchester City play their game (home vs. West Ham) ahead of this late evening kick off, so Mikel Arteta will know exactly what his team need to do to retain or retake pole position. The Gunners remain unbeaten at home but would only sit fourth in the table if you look at their away form alone, and nine teams, including the likes of Bournemouth and Burnley have scored more than the 10 goals they’ve managed on their travels this season.
Aston Villa vs. Man United
Next up, we thought we’d take a look at the Premier League’s form team, and sadly for @theUnitedStrand, and any other United fans who are still waiting for a haircut, that is not the away side at Villa Park on Sunday.
Unai Emery’s men have won their last nine games in a row, a run that includes five league wins and three consecutive matches where they’ve come from behind to beat Brighton, Arsenal, and most recently, West Ham. That form has rocketed them up to third in the table and if it wasn’t for their poor goal difference (all those comebacks mean they do tend to concede) they would be pushing for top spot at Christmas.
Villa do, however, face one of the toughest fixture lists over the festive period, with this match up followed by trips to Chelsea then Arsenal over the course of four days before we hit New Year.
United were involved in one of the most epic games of the season last Monday, with the 4-4 home draw against Bournemouth being an exemplar of their form under Ruben Amorim. They produced chances - recording a league high 17 shots in the first half alone - but they looked vulnerable at the back, conceding goals in quick succession. In fact, they’ve conceded two goals within 11 minutes on five different occasions this season.
As always, United’s trump card remains Bruno Fernandes. The captain has won four FotMob Player of the Match awards back-to-back, and leads our overall average match ratings (7.98) for the division, having created the most chances (50) and recorded the most assists (7).
Villarreal vs. Barcelona
It’s first versus third in LaLiga this weekend, with Barcelona travelling to Spain’s next-best form side who, coincidentally, also have Villa in their name and were once managed by Unai Emery.
Villarreal have won their last six league games and sit eight points down on the leaders with two games in hand. But a run of defeats in Europe, including most recently, a 3-2 home defeat to FC København, and last week’s postponement of their game at Levante appears to have disrupted their form. That, combined with a slew of injuries to key defenders and absences due to the AFCON, saw them get knocked out of the Copa Del Rey by Segunda division leaders Racing Santander in the week.
Barcelona safely navigated their trip to third tier opposition in the Copa to (eventually) record a six straight win in all competitions. Hansi Flick’s title defence is going well — they’ve won their last seven in LaLiga and his attackers are closing in on 50 goals scored.
For the first time in a while, second-placed Madrid play their fixture first this weekend, meaning Barca’s lead may have been cut to one point before this Sunday afternoon encounter.
The 35th Africa Cup of Nations gets underway in Morocco this weekend, with the hosts playing Comoros, the smallest nation to qualify for this edition.
Morocco have high hopes for the tournament and come in to it as the top ranked side (No. 11 in the World according to FIFA), but have only been crowned African champions once before, back in 1976. Ivory Coast will be out to defend the crown they won at the 2023 finals and the likes of Nigeria and Cameroon have something to prove having both missed out on World Cup qualification.
The impact of this tournament on club football has been getting a lot of attention (including in this newsletter), but that is reductionist. The AFCON should be celebrated for what it is, Africa’s most important competition, and a chance to watch the continent’s best players competing for the countries that made them.
We will have a high level of match data available for all games across the group stages and beyond, plus some editorial content as we go along. That starts with a full group-by-group preview you can find below.
Bayern Munich’s goalscoring exploits in the Bundesliga have been staggering. Ahead of their meeting with Heidenheim in the final round before Die Winterpause (winter break), Bayern remain unbeaten in the league and have reached a half century of goals faster than any other side in Bundesliga history (scoring 51 in total).
Vincent Kompany’s side have now scored at least twice in 21 consecutive league games, a run that obviously dates back well in to the last campaign.
All of which does not bode well for their opponents on Sunday. Heidenheim are four points off bottom but have conceded more goals than anyone else in the division (30) and have not kept a clean sheet in their last 17 matches.
The Polish top flight has already gone on it’s festive break but we hope at least one of the clubs get it together and use their time off to come up with a plan to actually try and win the league in the new year.
After 18 rounds just 11 points separate leaders Wisła Płock from bottom side Termalica Nieciecza! The aforementioned Wisła Płock, who are managed by Mariusz Misiura (pictured above), only returned to the top division this season but are currently trying their best to ruin what has been a great start by drawing each of their last five games.
In fact, just one side in the top 10 actually won in the last round of fixtures. Last year’s champions Jagiellonia Blalystok were held by mid-table Motor Lubin. And don’t even ask about record league winners Legia Warsaw, they’re sat down in 17th, level on points with Termalica at the foot of the table.
The second half of the season could get very messy.
For most of the season, it’s looked like Manchester City have been set out to feed Erling Haaland’s unquenchable thirst for goals. Now, though, with his minutes increasing, it’s seems as though Pep Guardiola is softening his tactics a little to let Rayan Cherki play to his obvious talents.
RC Lens are top of the tree in France heading in to 2026, and one of the main driving forces behind their successful first half of the campaign has been the form of their experienced right winger. Thauvin has been to Mexico and Italy in recent years but it’s back in his homeland where he’s found his mojo.
With six goal contributions in his last four Premier League games and an international hattrick last time his pulled on a Welsh shirt, Harry Wilson might just be in the best form of this career. Key to everything positive Fulham have done in 2025/26, the 28-year-old is seemingly also running his own goal of the season competition.
If you run FotMob on an iOS device, you could be enjoying live score updates on your lock screen, without even having to click on a widget, or even open the app via a notification.
We’ve been making use of Apple’s Live Activities functionality since it’s initial release and if you head to your favourite team profile, and hit the bell, you can toggle on the top option to ensure that all their games get automatically added to your lock screen.
You will need to have opened the app at some point on matchday in order for the live activity to be triggered, that’s an Apple requirement, but after that, you can keep track of the score with a glance rather than interrupting that all-important family festive event and never again be accused of ‘always being on your phone.’
Pro Tip: Click on any of the matches below, then tap the star in the right hand side of the match page to add them to your Following section.
Friday: In Saudi Arabia, Bologna play Inter in the second Supercoppa semifinal, with the winners going on to face Napoli in Monday’s showpiece. Borussia Dortmund host Borussia Mönchengladbach, a side they have beaten 11 times in a row at home. It’s Coupe De France weekend, and Ligue 1 leaders Lens come up against fourth tier Feignies Aulnoye. And there’s an all-Welsh tie in the EFL Championship as Wrexham go to Swansea City.
Saturday: Newcastle United vs. Chelsea is the early kickoff in the Premier League, with Spurs vs. Liverpool filling the early evening slot. The big game in Serie A sees Juventus take on Roma, while in LaLiga, Real Madrid welcome Sevilla to the Bernabéu. Back in the Coupe de France, newly crowned Intercontinental Cup winners PSG have been drawn against fifth tier minnows Vendee Fontenay Foot.
Sunday: Hearts can continue to disrupt the usual order in Scotland when they play Rangers, a side they’ve already beaten once this season. As mentioned earlier, host nation Morocco kick of the Africa Cup of Nations with a Group A game against Comoros. Vasco da Gama and Corinthians meet for the second leg of the Copa do Brasil final, with the scores currently stuck at nil-nil. And keep an eye on Robin van Persie’s Feyenoord. They play Twente looking to avoid an eighth defeat in 10 games.