Dream Team gaffers should target these favourable festive fixtures for bountiful returns in coming weeks

THE true meaning of Christmas is live football almost every single day.

Dream Team managers will have to keep their wits about them in the coming weeks if they’re to make the most of non-stop action.

Generally, players tend to produce more points from favourable fixtures so let’s take a look at which clubs have the best set of match-ups from Gameweek 15 until the end of the year.

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Manchester City

• Luton (a)
• Red Star Belgrade (a)
• Crystal Palace (h)
• Everton (a)
• Sheffield United (h)

Pep Guardiola’s side play one fewer fixture than most their main rivals this month because of their Club World Cup commitments – please note that City players won’t score Dream Team points in the Club World Cup.

That jaunt is offset by a very favourable run of eligible games with 13th-placed Palace being their toughest league opponent on paper.

It’s said that Belgrade is a difficult place to go but the reality is that Red Star have failed to win any of their five Champions League games this season, drawing one and losing four.

Every club bar City and Brentford will play twice in Gameweek 17 so gaffers will have to negotiate that hiccup but Erling Haaland (£8.1m) and friends should plunder plenty of points when active.

The treble winners have struggled to keep clean sheets this term so it will be interesting to see how many points the likes of Ederson (£3.4m) and Kyle Walker (£3.4m) produce this month given the friendly match-ups.

Aston Villa

• Arsenal (h)
• Zrinjski Mostar (a)
• Brentford (a)
• Sheffield United (h)
• Manchester United (a)
• Burnley (h)

The Villains host Man City this week before welcoming the Gunners to their patch on Saturday – an undeniably massive double header.

Once that’s out of the way though, Unai Emery will feel confident of a prosperous run up until the end of the year.

The Bees are a decent outfit but they are ten points behind Villa at this stage having scored 11 fewer goals.

Villa then play the bottom two teams either side of a trip to the Red Devils, a club seemingly on the brink of an implosion if reports are to be believed.

Matty Cash’s (£3.2m) returns have fallen off a cliff but Ollie Watkins (£4.7m) continues to go from strength to strength.

Only Haaland and Mohamed Salah (£6.8m) have more points than the England striker among forwards right now.

Douglas Luiz (£3.5m) has also been productive of late having amassed 54 points across the last five and a half Gameweeks.

Newcastle

• Tottenham (a)
• AC Milan (h)
• Fulham (h)
• Chelsea (a)
• Luton (a)
• Nottingham Forest (h)

Gameweek 15 is tricky prospect on paper but it should noted that Spurs have taken just one point from a possible 12 in their last four league games amid an injury crisis.

The Magpies have a plague of injuries themselves but impressive showings against Chelsea, PSG and Man United have proven they remain a formidable side.

Having dismantled the Blues 4-1 recently, Eddie Howe will surely be hopeful of a positive result in the Carabao Cup quarter-final at Stamford Bridge – though it’s hard to predict the strength of the starting line-ups.

Fulham, Luton and Forest to finish the calendar year’s league fixtures, with two of those games taking place at St James’ Park, looks ripe for plentiful points.

Kieran Trippier (£5.2m), Anthony Gordon (£3.8m) and Alexander Isak (£4.4m) could feast if they remain available.

Chelsea

• Everton (a)
• Sheffield United (h)
• Newcastle (h)
• Wolves (a)
• Crystal Palace (h)
• Luton (a)

Mauricio Pochettino won’t be keen on another meeting with Newcastle so soon after his side’s capitulation at St James’ Park but it appears to be relatively smooth sailing elsewhere.

Dream Team bosses may be hesitant to back Chelsea too heartily as they have been up and down in 2023/24 to say the least.

However, recent wins over Tottenham and Brighton plus a barnstorming 4-4 draw with City indicate there are points to be had if everything clicks.

Raheem Sterling (£3.9m) averages 6.1 points-per-game this season and it may be somebody like Levi Colwill (£2.5m) emerges as a shrewd bargain, at least in the short term.

Chelsea’s next five league opponents are all in the bottom half – by sheer definition that’s a favourable run that should yield healthy returns.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk