It is back to the grind for players this weekend as they return to their bread-and-butter jobs of Premier League football following the international break.
And what a welcome back.
Saturday's early televised kick off should actually come after the TV watershed as Manchester United welcome Arsenal to Old Trafford.
The two clubs were the premier heavyweights throughout the late 1990s and noughties, while opposing managers Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger are unlikely to break with tradition and send each other Christmas cards this year.
Leaders Liverpool will look to keep their noses in front of the chasing pack but face a far from straightforward assignment against a Southampton side confounding critics who predicted a season of struggle under Frenchman Claude Puel.
See also
• Team Talk podcast: Arsenal will go to Manchester United and pile more misery on Mourinho
• Premier League predictions: Arsenal punish understrength Man United
Bottom club Sunderland take on fellow relegation strugglers Hull City in what could already be a relegation decider with just over two thirds of the campaign remaining, although both won their matches – against Bournemouth and Southampton respectively – before the international break.
One team keeping their head just above relegation water is West Ham United, who face fellow Londoners Tottenham Hotspur in on Saturday's late match.
The last eight league fixtures between these two sides have produced 25 goals, an average of just over three a game. Spurs boast the league’s stingiest defence (6), West Ham its most porous outside the bottom three (20).
It is something of an anomaly this season that Spurs have already beaten third-placed Manchester City and drawn with leaders Liverpool and fellow top-four challengers Arsenal to remain the Premier League’s only unbeaten team, and yet are only fifth, five points off the summit.
But stats are like bikinis: they may look good, but they do not show you everything.
Spurs’ form guide over the last five matches reads: draw, loss, draw, loss, draw – resulting in elimination from the League Cup and leaving their chances of reaching the Uefa Champions League knockout stages looking about as prosperous as a turkey’s on Christmas Day.
Their opponents, meanwhile, boast three wins, a defeat and a draw in their last five league and cup matches, yet sit precariously perched one place and one point above the bottom three.
While many credit an Eden Hazard-inspired 2-2 draw against Chelsea in May for derailing Tottenham’s 2015/16 title bid, West Ham fans will tell you the 1-0 win at Upton Park at the start of March, courtesy of a Michail Antonio goal, sewed the seeds of doubt in Mauricio Pochettino’s side in their bid to outlast Leicester City.
Defeat that day cost Tottenham the chance to go top of the league. A similar result on Saturday will see them remain fifth but would be no less damaging to their top-four ambitions.
The furore around Harry Kane’s contract situation is an unwanted distraction, although most have probably overlooked the fact the England striker penned a new and improved five-year deal as recently as February 2015.
But with Spurs without a league win in four, a victory will only enhance the club’s bargaining position that the 23-year-old frontman’s future is best served at White Hart Lane.
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