Here’s everything you need to know about the Premier League winter break schedule

This season, the Premier League’s winter break—also known as the league’s mid-season player break—will return. 

The COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 caused the only earlier gap, which was ended by the Winter World Cup in Qatar last year. This is a summary of the schedule for the upcoming winter break this year:

When is the Premier League winter break?

The English league break spans out across two weekends, as opposed to ending entirely in one part, as is the case in, say, Spain, Germany, and France.

Matchweek 21 will consist of five games spread over two weekends. This implies that ten teams will play one weekend, take the next weekend off, and the remaining ten teams will play their games the following weekend.

January 10-12 is when half of the games are scheduled to take place, while the remaining five are scheduled for January 20 to 22. 

What are the fixtures during the winter break?

The Carabao Cup semi-finals will take place during the break; however, the FA Cup third-round replay requirement will shorten the interval for any team that needs one. To allow for TV broadcasting, the five matches are divided across three days on both weekends. The following are the fixtures, which are subject to change and all timings are in GMT:

Friday, 12 January

Burnley v Luton Town (19:45)

Saturday, 13 January

Chelsea v Fulham (12:30)

Newcastle United v Manchester City (17:30)

Sunday, 14 January

Everton v Aston Villa (14:00)

Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur (16:30)

Saturday, 20 January

Arsenal v Crystal Palace (12:30)

Brentford v Nottingham Forest (17:30)

Sunday, 21 January

Sheffield United v West Ham United (14:00)

Bournemouth v Liverpool (16:30)

Monday, 22 January

Brighton & Hove Albion v Wolverhampton Wanderers (19:45)

How many days of vacation will each team get?

In the FA Cup third round, seven Premier League teams—Crystal Palace, Everton, Brentford, Wolves, Luton Town, Nottingham Forest, and West Ham—will play.

A 17-day break was supposed to help the Wolves the most, but because of the additional game, it will only be 11 or 12 days. Liverpool, Chelsea, and Fulham—the three Premier League teams vying for the EFL Cup—already had shorter rests. They each have ten, eleven, and eleven-day breaks.

It is challenging to determine precise breaks at this point because some teams will be playing their rematch or FA Cup fourth-round encounter, the dates of which have not yet been set.

According to the schedule, Burnley gains the most from the winter break if their sides play on Tuesday, January 16 for the replays and on Saturday, January 27, if they have an FA Cup fourth-round encounter. It will be 19 days between matches for Vincent Kompany’s team. 

Since the Hatters now have an FA Cup rematch against Bolton, their final game before the break, a Premier League matchup versus Luton, has been moved forward three days. On January 31, they play their first game following the break at Manchester City, as they are not participating in the FA Cup.

Bournemouth and Sheffield United will get fifteen days off, while Brighton will have sixteen. Right now, Manchester City and Newcastle have 14 days off, while five other teams—including Arsenal and Tottenham—have 13. The rematch means that Nottingham Forest will now have the shortest break, lasting just nine days. Everton’s FA Cup draw has also reduced their break to ten days.