SOCCER FOOTBALL 24H

Burnley v Liverpool New Year's Day, 15:00 Clarets not at their best Burnley's current run of fixtures almost seems designed specifically as a punchline to recent talk about the Champions League. The Clarets were lingering near the top four a couple of weeks ago, but  a run of five away games in seven  - with Tottenham and Liverpool their visitors at Turf Moor - has not started especially well: after the 0-0 draw with Huddersfield, Sean Dyche's side have now gone four games without a win. There were mitigating factors on Saturday: Burnley outplayed the Terriers and really ought to have been awarded a spot kick when Jeff Hendrick was brought down by Jonas Lössl. "There's not much to say about it because  everyone will see it was a penalty ," lamented Dyche after the game, and there was little argument from David Wagner. Yet Burnley also had themselves to blame for some wastefulness in front of goal. Dyche welcomes back James Tarkowski  after his thr...

Everton v Man Utd Monday, 17:30 GMT Live on Sky Sports Main Event Toffees looking to bounce back After an  unbeaten run of seven games  under new boss Sam Allardyce in which they conceded just two goals, Everton made some  careless mistakes  to lose 2-1 at Bournemouth on Saturday. A response can be expected but a glance at the table shows that Everton need to be  given plenty of respect  anyway. Despite their poor start to the season, only the top three and Arsenal have  won more home games than Everton's six  while let's not forget that the Merseysiders remain the only team in the top flight to have taken points off Man City this term. Their record against the big teams has been  impressive  of late too and under Allardyce's watch they've drawn 1-1 at Liverpool and held Chelsea to a 0-0 home draw. United suffering dip Back in September, Romelu Lukaku scored against his former club in a 4-0 win to move Man Utd join...

Leeds v Nottingham Forest Monday 1st January, 15:00 Live on Sky Sports Leeds' winning streak ended Leeds ' four-match winning spree came to a surprising end on Saturday as  Thomas Christiansen 's team fell to a 1-0 reverse at rock-bottom Birmingham. The below-par Whites failed to create any clear-cut opportunities until  Pablo Hernandez 's strike was palmed onto the top of the crossbar by David Stockdale. Christiansen felt his side were unfortunate not to pick up a share of the spoils at St Andrew's, describing the encounter as a "horrible game". United managed  only two on-target efforts  and fired in just two attempts from inside the penalty area in a blunt attacking display. Samu Saiz  made an inspired appearance off the bench against Birmingham and is expected to be handed a starting role in place of Pawel Cibicki here whilst Christiansen will hope to have  Eunan O'Kane  and  Ronaldo Vieira  back in his squad after both misse...

Burton v Norwich Championship, Saturday 15:00 Burton suffered an eighth straight home defeat against Leeds on Boxing Day, having held the lead for 30 minutes either side of the break only to then concede twice in the space of four minutes. It was the sort of demoralising setback that would generate a sense of foreboding at most clubs but the Brewers will carry on regardless. There's arguably no team in the country that picks up themselves up from the canvas better and keep coming back for more. Burton are cast-iron relegation fodder in terms of budget and personnel but Nigel Clough has made them ultra-resilient, able to brush off each disappointment and go again. They are dogged and consistent, generally reducing games to fine margins, and it has reaped big rewards on the road over the past couple of months with wins at Millwall, Bolton and Reading, plus a draw at Brentford. According to Clough, performances at the Pirelli have been no worse, his players have just made more ...

With West Ham and Spurs not playing in GW21, fantasy managers may need to think about squad rotation. Neil Monnery is here with who his fancies for games on Saturday and Sunday. Eight to like Wayne Rooney - £7.5m . The former England captain has recovered from the virus that kept him out of the past two games. Coming off the back of  three straight games scoring  and travelling to Bournemouth, who play a very open game, this looks like a slam dunk selection. Richarlison - £6.5m . Eight games without a goal doesn't scream a great fantasy play but sometimes you look at players and just think that they are due. He is still getting into great positions but can't find the back of the net.  Swansea at home  is the type of game where he has every chance to recapture that fine early season form. Richarlison is currently trading at  2.76  to score at anytime in the Watford v Swansea match on the Exchange Jesse Lingard - £6.1m . I wrote about him in t...