A grand total of 38 Premier League players are away over the next few weeks playing in either the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) or the Asian Cup.
Only three clubs – Burnley, Manchester City and Newcastle United – are unaffected by the tournaments, which both run for four weeks beginning from 12 January.
From the @premierleague all the way to Côte d'Ivoire. 31 Superstars ready to light up #TotalEnergiesAFCON2023. 🌟 pic.twitter.com/Iad4u5TjaU
— CAF (@CAF_Online) January 10, 2024
Some clubs are worse hit than others.
Chelsea lose Nicolas Jackson, although the so-far profligate Chelsea No 9 might not be too big a miss for Mauricio Pochettino, especially with Armando Broja scoring against Preston in the FA Cup last Saturday.
Everton are without Idrissa Gueye, but they are boosted by Abdoulaye Doucoure’s timely return from injury, and Crystal Palace will be dented only slightly by the loss of Jordan Ayew, who has two goals and five assists to his name this season.
Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion are also in better positions than they first look. Yoane Wissa’s absence coincides with Ivan Toney’s return, while Kaoru Mitoma has no goals and one assist in his last 14 matches for Brighton in all competitions. He could do with a break and a reset.
Here, Alex Keble looks at the six teams most impacted by the winter international tournaments.
Tottenham Hotspur
Yves Bissouma (Mali), Son Heung-min (South Korea), Pape Sarr (Senegal)
Spurs' Premier League fixtures
Ange Postecoglou has stabilised Spurs' form to the extent they could be back in the title race over the next month, although AFCON and the Asian Cup seriously scupper his plans.
Son is the biggest loss. His 12 goals and five assists in the Premier League make 2023/24 a career-best return rate of 0.91 goals involvements per 90 minutes.
Son has been enjoying the extra space to gallop into, revelling in the attacking freedom and fast-transition football of the new Spurs head coach. But with James Maddison also sidelined, Spurs’ creative options are now limited, although the arrival of Timo Werner will help if he can hit the ground running.
Spurs are looking even thinner in central midfield. Bissouma and Sarr – a double act who have started 75 per cent of the league matches so far – are away with Mali and Senegal respectively.
We will see a lot more of Rodrigo Bentancur, Oliver Skipp and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg over the coming weeks, and while all are talented players, their lack of game time together is a problem considering Spurs' fixture difficulty.
Brentford and Everton will be sticky opponents: low-scoring matches in which the hosts look to frustrate Postecoglou’s tactics with a deep block.
Meanwhile Manchester United and Brighton, two quick and direct teams, will enjoy counter-attacking against a second-string midfield.
Nottingham Forest
Ola Aina (Nigeria), Serge Aurier (Ivory Coast), Willy Boly (Ivory Coast), Cheikhou Kouyate (Senegal), Moussa Niakhate (Senegal), Ibrahim Sangare (Ivory Coast)
Forest's Premier League fixtures
No team have as many absentees as Forest, who are missing six first-team players. No team have such a difficult set of fixtures over the next month.
Fortunately for Forest supporters Nuno Espirito Santo hasn’t been starting many of those six, although Aina and Niakhate represent half of his back four. Harry Toffolo will come in at left-back but Nuno’s third-choice centre-back Boly is also at AFCON.
Joe Worrall will come in alongside Murillo, as he did for the FA Cup third-round match against League One side Blackpool, who – worryingly - scored twice at the City Ground.
Blackpool’s second goal was a bit of a disaster for the Forest back four, which is an ominous sign with four difficult Premier League matches on the horizon.
Brentford’s physicality could be a concern, while Arsenal, AFC Bournemouth and Newcastle have the kind of speedy attacking overloads that would hurt Forest at the best of times.
It might convince Nuno to move to a back three for some extra defensive security, especially given that Worrall played in the middle of a three when Forest beat Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge earlier this season.
Whatever he decides to do, Nuno is likely to find the next month very challenging.
Fulham
Calvin Bassey (Nigeria), Alex Iwobi (Nigeria), Fode Ballo-Toure (Senegal)
Fulham's Premier League fixtures
Fulham tend to struggle even if just one of their first-choice XI is missing. Most recently Willian was out in late December and they lost back-to-back matches against Burnley and Bournemouth.
Marco Silva might therefore be concerned by the double loss of Bassey and Iwobi, the former being his most important centre-back and the latter being his high-energy creative midfielder who sews everything together.
Iwobi has taken more shots than any other Fulham player this season, with 32, and is second only to Tom Cairney for progressive passes, with 78, which gives some insight into his impact in various areas of the field, whether starting on the left, the right or as a No 10.
Bassey is an even bigger loss. After a slow start, he has grown in stature this season and put in arguably his best Fulham performance to date in the Cottagers' last league match, the 2-1 victory over Arsenal, in which the 24-year-old overpowered Eddie Nketiah.
It will be difficult for Fulham to replicate that kind of performance against Chelsea, or in the second leg of the EFL Cup semi-final against Liverpool, without Bassey at the back.
Fulham have won 17 points from the 12 Premier League matches in which Bassey started, and seven points from the eight encounters in which he did not. The stats with Iwobi are similar: 16 points from 12 fixtures with Iwobi, and eight points from eight without.
Liverpool
Wataru Endo (Japan), Mohamed Salah (Egypt)
Liverpool's Premier League fixtures
Historically AFCON meant Liverpool losing two of an ever-present front three - Sadio Mane and Salah - and it therefore remains in our muscle memory to be concerned when the tournament rolls around.
In 2024, any worries regarding Salah’s absence might be slightly exaggerated considering the forward options at Jurgen Klopp’s disposal.
Bournemouth and Chelsea leave plenty of space, which should give the likes of Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz what they need to replace Salah’s goals. What’s more, their toughest match is a trip to Emirates Stadium, where they just beat Arsenal 2-0 in the FA Cup without Salah.
Still, Salah is in the form of his life. He is the Premier League’s joint-leader for goals and assists with 14 and eight respectively, and he is hitting career-high averages for key passes with 2.44 per 90 minutes, progressive passes with 5.13 per 90, and through-balls with 0.67 per 90.
Endo is also away, although that blow is softened by the return of Alexis Mac Allister, whom Klopp has generally preferred at the base of midfield this season.
West Ham United
Nayef Aguerd (Morocco), Mohammed Kudus (Ghana)
West Ham's Premier League fixtures
West Ham have won 10 points from their last four Premier League matches but their good form was halted by a damaging draw in the FA Cup third round against Bristol City. David Moyes has now lost his winter break – and possibly lost two of his best players to injury.
Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta both hobbled off in the cup tie, which is dreadful timing given that Kudus joins up with Ghana for AFCON.
Kudus has scored four goals in his last five matches in all competitions for West Ham, but more importantly he was the perfect counterpoint to Paqueta from the opposite wing.
Moyes will have to rely on Maxwel Cornet, whose West Ham career is yet to take off, and Danny Ings, which isn’t the most comforting thought for Hammers fans with Man United and Arsenal coming up.
West Ham will miss Kudus’ counter-attacking pace against those "Big Six" sides, as well as the commanding presence of centre-back Aguerd.
To compound West Ham’s bad luck, Aguerd’s replacement Konstantinos Mavropanos also went off with an injury against Bristol City. Angelo Ogbonna came on to replace him.
Sheffield United away and Bournemouth at home are kinder encounters, however, and Moyes will hope to get players back from injury by the time West Ham travel to Old Trafford on 4 February.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Rayan Ait-Nouri (Algeria), Hwang Hee-chan (South Korea), Justin Hubner (Indonesia), Boubacar Traore (Mali)
Wolves' Premier League fixtures
Losing left-back Ait-Nouri shouldn’t hurt Wolves too much. Matt Doherty, an experienced defender, can fill in competently. In fact, he has managed to score three goals in all competitions this season - two in the EFL Cup, one in the Premier League - despite starting just four matches.
But there is no replacing Hwang, who is in the form of his life with 10 goals and three assists in the Premier League this season. He has been directly involved in 43 per cent of Wolves’ league goals.
His counter-attacking partnership with Matheus Cunha has been devastating under Gary O’Neil, and it feels unlikely that Pedro Neto will be able to replace all those goals.
It’s bad timing, too. Brighton, Man Utd and Chelsea are the kind of opponents O’Neil’s team love playing because they will allow Wolves to sit back, absorb pressure and spring forward on the break.
Wolves have already beaten Man City, Spurs and Chelsea this season, but adding another big scalp will be tough without Hwang.
With that said, the South Korean only scored in one of those three victories. And in the most recent of the successes, the 2-1 win against Chelsea, it was Doherty who popped up with the late winner.
