In England, in the Premier League, some of the old favorites are undergoing a resurgence in the current season, while some old favorites are disappointing their fans. Liverpools has surged into first place in the standings, with 42 points. Manchester City is in second place with 41 points, and in third, the Tottenham Hotspur, with 36. Chelsea stands at number 4 in the table, with 34 points, with Arsenal just behind, also with 34. Manchester United, with millions of adoring fans from throughout the world, is considered to have fallen on hard times lately, and is just in sixth on the table, but the points reflect how far they are behind the top five. They stand with 26 points. At the bottom of the standings are Fulham and Southampton, both with 9 points. They may want to use the January trading period to tweak their lineups. Upcoming games in Week 17 include Manchester City vs. Everton, Huddersfield vs. Newcastle, Crystal Palace vs. Leicester, Tottenham Hotspur vs. Burnley, Watford vs. Cardiff, Wolverhampton vs. Bournemouth, Fulham vs. West Ham, Brighton vs. Chelsea, Southampton vs. Arsenal, and Liverpool vs. Manchester United. In the United Arab Emirates, the FIFA Club World Cup began two days ago, with great fanfare. This year's finals take place at two venues, Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi and Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain. There are eight matches in all, with the quarterfinals currently underway. Madrid will headline the tournament for the second successive year after the Spanish giants sealed a third consecutive Uefa Champions League in June with victory in the final against Liverpool. They are somewhat reduced this season, without Cristiano Ronaldo, but may yet find their way. After all, they have Luka Modric, the midfield maestro who won the Champions League title with Real Madrid and then helped lead Croatia to the World Cup final, was honored Monday with the Ballon d’Or as world player of the year. Al Ain, the 2017/18 Arabian Gulf League champions, represent the UAE and make their Club World Cup debut when they kick off the tournament against New Zealand’s Team Wellington, who qualify as Oceania champions. Meanwhile, Asian champions Kashima Antlers, of Japan, and African champions Esperance de Tunis, of Tunisia, are competing, alongside Mexico’s CD Guadalajara, the reigning Concacaf champions. Argentina's River Plate have won the right to play for South America. Wellington was knocked out in the opening game against hosts Al Ain, playing at home. Today's knockout matches include Al Ain vs. Esperance de Tunis and the Kashima Antlers vs. CD Guadalajara. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
