Few seasonal adjustments expected

The reappearance of a high-ranking German in the nondescript no-man's land of North London will probably not inspire a Christmas truce in the Premiership. Jurgen Klinsmann's latest registration as a Tottenham player was completed on Tuesday in good time for him to play against Aston Villa on St Stephen's Day, when Mark Bosnich will be able to welcome back his old sparring partner with an outstretched arm.

All the same, Alan Sugar, the Tottenham chairman, has shown an admirable willingness to encompass the Christmas spirit by running a favourite action movie for fans grown weary of the same old Carry On films. And nobody else was intending to show The Great Escape anyway.

Klinsmann will return to White Hart Lane for the visit of Arsenal on Sunday by which time he will already have noticed some difference in his surroundings. There will be no Teddy Sheringham attuned to a similar cerebral wavelength, for example, and Klinsmann would not be the first to wonder what had happened to Nick Barmby.

The 33-year-old German striker's return, as well as reviving the spirits of Tottenham's supporters, will add fresh interest to a Premier League rapidly becoming resigned to the idea of the title going to Manchester United for the fifth time in six seasons. The managerial word games which followed Sunday's match at Newcastle could not hide the fact that the champions remain in a class of their own when it comes to winning difficult fixtures.

Not that Manchester United's holiday programme looks that demanding. It will be a major surprise if they fail to gather six points from the home game against Everton on St Stephen's Dayand the visit to Coventry 48 hours later. By tradition, Christmas brings one or two shocks but should Everton win at Old Trafford analysis of the result will be best left to seismologists.

For the champions' immediate pursuers, therefore, it is probably going to be more a matter of keeping up than catching up. In their contrasting ways, Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea are playing excellent and attractive football and unless United are suddenly becalmed in the New Year the contest for second place, and entry to the qualifying stage of next season's Champions League, could become as fascinating as the main event.

On present form, Roy Hodgson's fast, inventive Blackburn side should prove too much for Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on December 26th. Wednesday's 4-1 home defeat by Chelsea last Saturday was followed by a familiar outburst of Ron Rage; their manager, Ron Atkinson, condemned the performance in terms which bore strong echoes of his blue periods at Aston Villa and Coventry.

This time disillusion appears to have set in earlier than usual. Atkinson has only been back at Wednesday a month.

Chelsea will benefit from an extra day's rest, meeting Southampton on Monday night after their St Stephen's Day encounter at home to Wimbledon. Last season Joe Kinnear's team won this fixture 4-2 and despite a crop of injuries and suspensions Wimbledon remain capable of achieving the unexpected.

Certainly the floodlight failure at Selhurst Park, which for the second time this season turned the Premier League's Monday With Murdoch into The Sky At Night, was more of a relief for Arsenal than it was for Wimbledon. For 45 minutes Arsene Wenger's side had played with the radiance of a 40-watt bulb.

Before Arsenal can think of how they are going to cope with Klinsmann in the absence of Tony Adams, now a long-term injury with a bad back, they will need to address the problem of finding form against a Leicester team which has been sagging since September but will no doubt be roused by Martin O'Neill for the St Stephen's Day match at Highbury. This is one of four London games with a noon kick-off and unless Dennis Bergkamp recaptures his autumn form, Arsenal may end up paying for lunch.

Liverpool and Leeds United, fifth and fourth in the table above Arsenal, meet at Anfield on Boxing Day. George Graham's improving Leeds side, beaten once in 12 league games, will set out to break up Liverpool's passing much as they did at Chelsea the Saturday before last.

If they manage to finish the match with 11 players this time Leeds may do more than avoid defeat. Liverpool are at Newcastle two days later, giving this Christmas a look of make-or-break for Roy Evans's chances of maintaining a serious presence near the top of the Premiership.

At the bottom Barnsley - away to Bolton, home to Derby County - look like falling further behind while the relegation struggle above them intensifies. The visits of Southampton and Bolton to Crystal Palace and Everton will be angst-ridden affairs, especially now that Tottenham are lurking just below the safety line with a recaptured Unterseeboot.