The show must always go on. The celebrations in Argentina were still at fever pitch when the Carabao Cup returned two days on from the World Cup final, as if it was a parallel universe away from Qatar or Buenos Aires. “Spectacular,” Jurgen Klopp enthused despite Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat to Manchester City, in what was perhaps the best game of football played since last Sunday. It was all a warm-up act, though, as on Boxing Day the Premier League resumes. It will do so at full speed and with no breaks, as if there had not been a World Cup at all.
There has been, of course, and the events in the six weeks since Alejandro Garnacho’s late winner for Manchester United at Fulham will shape the Premier League’s resumption. It was always going to be a season like no other, given the first-ever winter World Cup, but the traditional fixture schedule over the festive period remains. It’s a lot to ask for players who went through the most intense emotions in football while at the World Cup, but there will be others who are rested. Likewise, some managers have essentially had a pre-season, while others have only had their squads restored in the past week.
