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With the Premier League entering silly season, a hectic midweek schedule is sure to throw up plenty more entertainment.
Pep Guardiola stands on the brink of breaking a 15-year-old league record, while Jose Mourinho may have a selection headache on his hands.
Here Sportsmail take a look at some of the potential talking points ahead of this week’s round of fixtures…
Should Gareth Southgate choose to pay a visit to Turf Moor on Tuesday night, he may find himself drawn to both goalmouths more than usual.
There were fears for Burnley when they lost the dependable Tom Heaton to a shoulder injury in September.
The rather unheralded Nick Pope took his place and has kept six clean sheets in 12 appearances since. His man-of-the-match performance in a 1-0 win at Southampton last month was demonstrative of his excellent reflexes and shot-stopping prowess.
Pope’s rise from obscurity comes in a World Cup year, and with Joe Hart dropped to the West Ham bench at the weekend his chance for international recognition is now.
He will find himself directly competing against his nearest competitor for the No 1 jersey when Jack Butland lines up in the Stoke goal.
After conceding five to a rampant Tottenham at Wembley on Saturday, Butland will be determined to prove it was a one-off as calls grow for him to take Hart’s place on a permanent basis.
Publicly called out by his manager at the weekend for taking penalty duties off Luka Milivojevic, Christian Benteke’s stock at Selhurst Park has never been lower.
He became the pantomime villain after his stoppage-time penalty miss cost Crystal Palace all three points against Bournemouth.
It was the nadir of what has proved to be a disappointing second season at Palace - he has yet to score in 11 games this season.
The Belgian has the highest expected goals total of all players yet to score a Premier League goal in 2017-19 - 4.09.
None of his 24 shots have hit the back of the net, and Palace fans will be dearly hoping he can respond by breaking his duck for the campaign.
Roy Hodgson will need him firing if he is to rescue the Eagles from the relegation dropzone, and a midweek game is perfect timing for a quick response.
Can David Wagner upset the odds at the John Smith’s again?
David Wagner’s side seemed to be finally finding Premier League life difficult in recent weeks after four consecutive defeats saw them sucked towards the relegation zone.
A big, and much deserved, win over Brighton on Saturday was just the tonic for the German, who has been reliant on home form for Huddersfield’s bright beginning to life back in the top-flight.
Four of their five wins have come at the John Smith’s Stadium, and only Tottenham and Manchester City have emerged victorious there.
Antonio Conte’s men have won five times on the road already this year, but will have to be a lot more proactive on Tuesday then they were in defeat at the London Stadium at the weekend.
A rivalry renewed at St James’ Park, with a lot to play for
One of the great managerial feuds of Premier League history will be rekindled on Wednesday night when Rafa Benitez and Sam Allardyce meet in the dugouts once more.
Their clashes have been many and varied since Bolton inflicted Benitez’s first defeat in England in August 2004, and it will be the sixth different version of their rivalry at St James’ Park in midweek.
Benitez often found himself at odds with Allardyce’s uncompromising style, and the two were at loggerheads when the latter accused the former of disrespecting his Blackburn side after a Fernando Torres header in April 2009.
Allardyce took particular pleasure in inflicting the Spaniard’s first defeat as Chelsea manager at Upton Park in December 2012, and the pair finished honours even when they last encountered each other in the Tyne-Wear derby in March 2016.
Earlier in the season Allardyce had aimed barbs at Benitez for claiming he had ‘nothing to do’ with Liverpool’s Champions League win in his autobiography, and finished it by relegating the Spaniard.
Newcastle are now without a win in seven and sliding towards the bottom three. Benitez would relish nothing more than ending his barren run by ending Sam Allardyce’s unbeaten start at Everton.
Can Puel make it five in a row against his old club?
Richard Keys tweeted ‘RIP British coaching’ when Claude Puel replaced Craig Shakespeare at Leicester, but the Frenchman has kickstarted a renaissance in the 2016 champions.
From the depths of the relegation zone when he took charge in October, the Foxes are now eighth in the table.
Lost and ponderous under Craig Shakespeare, there has been a return to the direct running and approach play that so characterised them when Claudio Ranieri made history at the King Power Stadium.
Riyad Mahrez is in his best shape since claiming the PFA Player of the Year trophy, having been directly involved in eight goals this season - only one fewer than in the whole of last year.
Demarai Gray has become a key first-team player, and has netted three times in his last seven appearances.
The attacking bravado that has returned to Leicester is firmly at odds with the dour, conservative style Puel presided over at Southampton last year.
The Frenchman is not missed at St Mary’s, despite their struggles this year under Mauricio Pellegrino, but he would relish making it five wins in a row against his former employers.
Can Pep Guardiola make it 15 from 15?
People knew Manchester City were going to be good under Pep Guardiola. They were good under Guardiola last year, but only in fits and starts.
People expected Manchester City to be good this season. No one expected City to be this good this season.
An 11-point cushion at the top after only 16 games is preposterous, but then they have played preposterously good football. And when the going has got tough they have always found a way to win.
Ronald Koeman’s dishevelled Everton side are the only team to take points off them this season, in the second game of the campaign back in August.
Since then Guardiola’s men have racked up a record-equalling 14 Premier League wins in a row.
They can break that record set by Arsenal’s 2002 vintage - over two separate seasons - on Wednesday, and have placid opponents in Swansea standing before them.
Wilfried Bony’s late winner saved them against West Brom on Saturday, and eased Paul Clement’s desperation for three points against the champions elect.
Jurgen Klopp has drawn criticism for resting Liverpool’s big guns in one of their biggest games of the season on Sunday.
The circumstances of the 1-1 draw with Everton - missed chances, an acrimonious penalty decision and Klopp’s subsequent fury - threaten to arrest the momentum gained from scoring 12 goals in two games.
Wednesday’s opponents, West Brom, have not won a game since August - yet somehow are not in the relegation zone -and have not received the anticipated Alan Pardew bounce that was expected.
All eyes will be on Klopp’s teamsheet, for the German has made more starting eleven changes than any over Premier League manager this season, so expect another raft of changes.
The 59 he has made in the first 16 games trail only Manchester United’s 68 in 2001-02. That year United started badly but finished strongly.
Klopp, who has seen Liverpool respond to defeat at Tottenham with five wins in seven is, may start to feel vindicated by his constant rotation if they avoid the rut they entered this time last year with a much smaller squad.
With one Premier League strike in nine games since September, Romelu Lukaku’s travails in front of goal are officially becoming a problem for Manchester United.
He made two decisive penalty area contributions to Manchester City’s win at Old Trafford on Sunday - unfortunately they both came in his own box.
And he missed two glaring opportunities to finally make his mark on a big-six clash for United.
Pressure is growing on the Belgian striker, whose £75m fee looks as laughable now as it looked justified when he banged in 11 in his first 10 games. Maybe the truth lies, as ever, somewhere in the middle.
But Jose Mourinho may now see it as the right time to remove the summer signing from the limelight, with a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic waiting to make the first start of his second spell at Old Trafford.
The 36-year-old has made five substitute appearances this season, but now might be the time to unleash Zlatan and hand him his first start since April.
Have Spurs got over their Wembley problem?
A 1-0 win at Swansea in November put Chris Hughton’s side eighth in the table, but they have failed to win any of their last five since and were properly picked apart for the first time by Liverpool 10 days ago.
Hughton comes up against the side where he made his name as a player in the 1980s on Wednesday night with Brighton just four points above the drop zone.
Tottenham’s run of one win in six came to an end with the visit of a generous Stoke to Wembley on Saturday.
While that was a routine run-out, it has been anything but when bottom 10 sides have come to Spurs’ temporary home this season.
Burnley held them to a 1-1 draw in August, Swansea kept it scoreless and West Brom escaped with a point last month.
Bournemouth and Crystal Palace were both beaten, but only by a single goal. Mauricio Pochettino can’t continue making it such an ordeal in home matches against the weaker sides in the division.
Wednesday night may show us if the Stoke demolition job was the sign of things to come.
The last time West Ham beat Arsenal at home Wenger reacted angrily to celebrations from Pardew after a dramatic late winner from Harewood.
Much has changed since November 2006, if not in the Arsenal dugout. And that has typified a strong record for the Gunners against their London rivals.
The Hammers have won just one of their last 18 Premier League meetings with Arsenal (W1 D3 L14), with that win coming at the Emirates Stadium in August 2015.
David Moyes’ nightmare December run will come to an end after the visit of Arsenal to the London Stadium on Wednesday.
After coming so close to nicking a point at Manchester City, he was delighted with his side’s steel in defeat Chelsea on Saturday.
Will hard work be enough to beat an Arsenal side that looked decidedly stale in a 1-1 draw at Southampton on Sunday?
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