Tottenham have key players back for the north London derby but the break was not so kind for Arsenal
Cole Palmer has suffered another injury setback and misses Chelsea’s trip to Burnley
Alisson returns for Liverpool but Florian Wirtz and Conor Bradley have picked up injuries
The final international break of 2025 is over and the Premier League returns for gameweek 12, which features seven games on Saturday, two more on Sunday and a serving of Monday night football.
The standout match is Sunday’s north London derby, for which both sides have injury problems, while Chelsea and Liverpool also have key players out when they return to action on Saturday.
We have picked out the main team news for the weekend's biggest fixtures.
Burnley vs Chelsea (Saturday, 12.30pm)
Enzo Maresca was sure Cole Palmer would be back after the November international break and he probably would have been right had Chelsea’s star man not injured his toe while at home.
Palmer will miss Saturday’s trip to Burnley, as well as the upcoming clashes with Barcelona and Arsenal, making his latest setback an untimely one.
He remains in the Chelsea treatment room alongside Levi Colwill, Dario Essugo and Romeo Lavia but there is at least some good news for Blues fans as Pedro Neto, Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez have all been assessed and will feature at Turf Moor.
Burnley had their own injury scare over the international break as Armando Broja was stretchered off against England but the Albanian forward has trained since and is available.
Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest (Saturday, 3pm)
It’s a case of one back, three out for Liverpool, although their returning star could be a huge boost to their title hopes.
Alisson has been sorely missed by the Reds, with Giorgi Mamardashvili failing to match the Brazilian’s high standards, and he should reclaim the gloves against Forest.
However, the Reds will be without struggling summer signing Florian Wirtz as well as right-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley, meaning there may be a rare start for forgotten man Joe Gomez in defence.
Dilane Bakwa, Ola Aina, Douglas Luiz, Angus Gunn and Oleksandr Zinchenko make up a lengthy Nottingham Forest injury list but they could welcome back Chris Wood and Callum Hudson-Odoi, who scored the winner at Anfield last season.
Newcastle vs Manchester City (Saturday, 5.30pm)
Manchester City ramped up the pressure on Arsenal with a 3-0 win over Liverpool last time and Pep Guardiola can call upon the same group at St James’ Park, with Rodri and Mateo Kovacic the only players missing.
Dan Burn is suspended so Eddie Howe will call upon fit-again Lewis Hall to try and stop red-hot Erling Haaland from notching his 100th Premier League goal.
Newcastle will also have Anthony Gordon, Tino Livramento, Nick Pope and Sandro Tonali available, but strikers Yoane Wissa and William Osula miss out.
Arsenal vs Tottenham (Sunday, 4.30pm)
Tottenham’s injury crisis has eased just in time for Sunday’s north London derby. There was a chance Spurs would be without a double-figure amount of players for the short trip to Arsenal but Thomas Frank delivered a positive press conference on Friday.
Pape Sarr, Lucas Bergvall, Mohammed Kudus, Randal Kolo Muani, Radu Dragusin, Ben Davies, Kota Takai and Archie Gray all returned to training this week, meaning only James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke are certain absentees.
Mikel Arteta’s press conference was not so positive as he revealed Arsenal will be without key defender Gabriel, who is set to be out for a number of weeks.
The Spaniard also said Riccardo Calafiori will also need to be assessed as he has not trained since returning from international duty.
Arteta did not comment on any of Viktor Gyokeres, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard or Noni Madueke, but the chance of any of them featuring on Sunday looks unlikely.
