When does the Premier League winter break end?

  • After a World Cup-interrupted campaign last term, the Premier League winter break is back this season
  • Ten league games will be spread over two weekends
  • The domestic cups have left some clubs with more congested schedules than others
The Premier League has scheduled a mid-season hiatus for clubs this season
The Premier League has scheduled a mid-season hiatus for clubs this season / Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/GettyImages
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Don't ever let it be said the English Football Association is not a well-oiled machine.

At the start of the new millennium, the organisation's chief executive Adam Crozier took on the advice of England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and declared: "It's time to freshen up our players in mid-season." Two short decades later, the whirring cogs of bureaucracy finally sanctioned a Premier League winter break - of sorts.

Initially trialled in the 2019/20 campaign, COVID-19 delayed the hiatus' return until 2021/22 before last year's winter World Cup brought all club football to a halt. Eriksson and Crozier may be long gone but the winter break is back.

With the FA Cup third round concluded - aside from the slate of replays - on the opening weekend of January, here's when the "mid-season player break", as the league insists on calling it, will end.


When is the Premier League winter break?

Manchester City v West Ham United - Premier League
There have been snow forecasts during the Premier League winter break / Naomi Baker/GettyImages

Unlike European top flights across the continent, the Premier League will not shut down for a fortnight - that would be far too simple.

Instead, the normal slate of ten fixtures across one matchday has been split over two weekends. Half the division's teams will go straight from the FA Cup third round into Premier League action from 12-14 January. The remaining ten teams, theoretically, will have enjoyed a break before getting back to the grindstone between 20-22 January while the rest of the division puts their collective feet up.

To make up for all the time off, the Premier League has helpfully planned a full round of midweek fixtures immediately after the winter break, thrusting all 20 teams into the meat grinder between Tuesday 30 January and Thursday 1 February. Naturally, every club will be back in action on the first weekend of February.

However, England's domestic cup competitions have muddled this intricate scheduling. Ten Premier League clubs are involved in either the two-legged Carabao Cup semi-finals or the spate of FA Cup third-round replays which have been shoehorned into this theoretical period of rest.


All fixtures during the Premier League winter break

First week of the winter break

Date / Kick-off time (GMT)

Fixture

Competition

Tuesday, 9 January - 20:00

Middlesbrough vs Chelsea

Carabao Cup semi-final first leg

Wednesday, 10 January - 20:00

Liverpool vs Fulham

Carabao Cup semi-final first leg

Friday, 12 January - 19:45

Burnley vs Luton

Premier League

Saturday, 13 January - 12:30

Chelsea vs Fulham

Premier League

Saturday, 13 January - 17:30

Newcastle vs Man City

Premier League

Sunday, 14 January - 14:00

Everton vs Aston Villa

Premier League

Sunday, 14 January - 16:30

Man Utd vs Tottenham

Premier League


Second week of the winter break

Date / Kick-off time (GMT)

Fixture

Competition

Tuesday, 16 January - 19:45

Bolton vs Luton

FA Cup third round replay

Tuesday, 16 January - 19:45

Blackpool vs Nottingham Forest

FA Cup third round replay

Tuesday, 16 January - 19:45

Wolves vs Brentford

FA Cup third round replay

Tuesday, 16 January - 19:45

Bristol City vs West Ham

FA Cup third round replay

Wednesday, 17 January - 19:45

Everton vs Crystal Palace

FA Cup third round replay

Saturday, 20 January - 12:30

Arsenal vs Crystal Palace

Premier League

Saturday, 20 January - 17:30

Brentford vs Nottingham Forest

Premier League

Sunday, 21 January - 14:00

Sheffield United vs West Ham

Premier League

Sunday, 21 January - 16:30

Bournemouth vs Liverpool

Premier League

Monday, 22 January - 19:45

Brighton vs Wolves

Premier League


Which Premier League club has the longest winter break?

Nuno Espirito Santo
An FA Cup replay was a dire outcome for Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo / Naomi Baker/GettyImages

The exact scheduling of the FA Cup fourth-round ties is yet to be revealed, although they will take place across the weekend of 27 January.

Burnley will not be involved after limping out to Tottenham Hotspur and are set to enjoy the longest break of any Premier League side. The Clarets need all the help they can get. Drowning in the relegation mire, second from bottom and five points adrift of 17th-placed Everton, Vincent Kompany will have 18 days free of any fixtures to mull over a possible escape route.

The mood of this lengthy hiatus will no doubt be heavily impacted by Burnley's final match; a visit from fellow relegation scrappers Luton Town on Friday 12 January. If the Clarets cannot close the gap to Luton - who are four points better off with a game in hand - Kompany may not be in place for the reunion with Manchester City at the end of January.

Most Premier League sides will enjoy somewhere between 12 and 14 consecutive days between games, with several clubs, including Arsenal and Manchester City, jetting off to warmer climes.

The seven top-flight clubs that will contest an FA Cup third-round replay do not have the same luxury of time.

Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo called for FA Cup replays to be scrapped to stop Premier League teams from "suffering". Nuno's Forest will suffer more than most after drawing 2-2 with League One's Blackpool in the third round.

Forest were in line for a 12-day break until travelling to Brentford in the league on 20 January. However, the replay with Blackpool has been scheduled during the proposed hiatus (16 January). Now Forest have only been entitled to a maximum of nine straight days without a match. That figure could dwindle further if Forest qualify for the fourth round.

Chelsea eventually swept Preston North End aside to avoid any cup replays but had already booked their place in the Carabao Cup semi-finals. Had it not been for the second leg against Middlesbrough on 23 January, the Blues would have enjoyed the same 17-day gap between fixtures as Manchester City. Instead, Mauricio Pochettino has to also settle for just nine days off.


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