What Premier League games are on 2023 New Year’s Day? Games, fixture, times

A new year but the same old obsession with soccer? If you’re looking for your soccer fix on New Year’s Day 2023, then look no further than the Premier League. Despite the Qatar 2022 World Cup threatening to throw a spanner in the works, the English top-flight has managed to keep its tradition of almost wall-to-wall festive soccer, with the action on Sunday, 1 January 2023 the sixth day of Premier League action since the league resumed on Boxing Day.

Premier League: what’s happened since the World Cup?

What’s gone down since we’ve got back underway? Well, the main story just has to be Arsenal, who have extended their lead at the top of the table to seven points with back-to-back wins over West Ham and Brighton, while nearest challengers Manchester City and, a little further back, Newcastle United surprisingly dropped points at home to Everton and Leeds United respectively on Saturday.

Marcus Rashford came off the bench to score Manchester United’s winner at Wolves early on Saturday, which moves them above Tottenham Hotspur (more on them in a moment) in the race for the Champions League places. Liverpool are four points off the top four but are starting to pick up some momentum after back-to-back post-Christmas victories over Aston Villa and Leicester City.

At the other end of the table, Southampton have picked up where they left off before the World Cup and are now bottom of the table after losing five Premier League games in a row. The Saints are joined in the relegation zone by Nottingham Forest, who play on New Year’s Day, and Wolves, while West Ham and Everton are looking nervously over their shoulders having failed to win since the restart.

Who plays in the Premier League on Sunday, 1 January 2023?

Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa (kick-off 9am ET, 6am PT)

Spurs came from 2-0 down to draw their last match at Brentford on Boxing Day but have dropped down to fifth in the table as a result of Manchester United’s win at Wolves on Saturday. A victory over Aston Villa will restore their two-point advantage over the Red Devils although they’ll have played a game more. Unai Emery won two league games out of two after joining Villa before the World Cup break but saw his team beaten by Liverpool on 26 December. The Villains are currently in 12th place, five points clear of the relegation zone.

Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea (kick-off 11:30am ET, 8:30am PT)

Graham Potter enjoyed a fine start to his time as Chelsea boss immediately after joining the club from Brighton but things quickly went pear-shaped as they collected only two points from their last five Premier League games before the World Cup break, a sequence of results which unsurprisingly saw them tumble down the table and out of the title race. A routine 2-0 win over Bournemouth on Tuesday has got them off on the right foot for the remainder of the season and another victory over struggling Nottingham Forest would move them to within a point of sixth-placed Liverpool. Forest know a win will take them out of the relegation zone and will hope to extend their unbeaten run at home to five Premier League games (two wins and two draws in the last four).