Leicester City may be the reigning English champions but manager Claudio Ranieri admits they have had to reassess their targets this year after a disastrous start to their title defence.

The Foxes sit 16^th in the Premier League table – just three points clear of Sunderland in the relegation zone following Boxing Day’s 2-0 home loss to Everton.

Kevin Mirallas and Romelu Lukaku scored the goals which condemned Ranieri’s men to their ninth defeat of the season, and the Midlands side are now preparing for a New Years Eve clash with West Ham United.

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And Ranieri is frustrated with his side’s inconsistency and is desperate for them to reach 20 points for the season against the Hammers.

“This season is up and down,” said the Italian – who has seen his side win just one of their last nine league matches.

“When we make something good, after arrives the defeat and never, never do we take the confidence to restart our season. Now it’s important to finish well in 2016.

“We have a match against West Ham, who won 4-1 away at Swansea and it’s important to make 20 points at the end of 2016.”

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is convinced that his side can still catch Chelsea at the top of the Premier League, thanks to their new-found resilience this term.

In seasons past the Gunners have been renowned for putting themselves in title contention early in the season, only to fade to their perennial spot in the top four but not at the top of the pile.

Chelsea’s incredible form over the past few months means they have a healthy lead in the Premier League standings, with Arsenal currently nine points behind in fourth spot and 20 games still to play.

The Gunners looked as if they were going to have to settle for a frustrating Boxing Day draw at home to West Brom until Olivier Giroud popped up with an 86^th-minute winner.

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And Wenger believes that their ability to fight until the end bodes well for his side, with an increased resilience compared to previous years on display.

“I feel yes [we have more resilience] because it’s normal that I tell you yes, but we have to show that for the whole season to maintain that kind of resilience,” said Wenger.

“At the moment there is quite a big distance between us and Chelsea and we need a special resilience to come back.

“But I hope that the other teams will have as well their moments of weakness and we can only take advantage of it if we continue like that.”

Scott Dann believes time will be a healer as Crystal Palace adjust to life under Sam Allardyce.

Allardyce, who was in charge of England for just one game, pitched up at the Eagles on December 23 following the sacking of Alan Pardew.

Just three days later Allardyce was in charge of his first game, but despite taking the lead against Watford from Yohan Cabaye the Hornets earned a share of the spoils thanks to a Troy Deeney penalty.

The result leaves Crystal Palace looking nervously over their shoulder as they sit one place and two points above the drop zone, but defender Dann is adamant good times are right around the corner under Allardyce.

“The manager has only been in for a couple of days and I am sure we will continue to work on defending as a team,” Dann said.

“As the weeks go by we will become more resilient as a team and when we do get ahead like we did we will see more games out and the points will start coming.

“We don’t play again for another few days which gives us more time to work on how we are going to set up for the games we have coming up and if we can put in another performance similar to this one we can start getting some more points on the board.”

Troy Deeney will be walking a little taller following his penalty against Crystal Palace after admitting a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

The spot-kick was his 100th strike for the Hornets, a milestone he had not looked like reaching in recent weeks, after his goalscoring touch deserted him.

But, with the monkey now off his back, he had a new target in his sights.

“It’s nice to finally get it done,” he said.

“I’ve been having a bit of a stinker recently so it’s a huge weight off my shoulders. It’s one of those that when I retire I’ll look back on how nice it is, but I’ve got to get 105 now to get to fourth place [in Watford’s all-time scoring chart].”

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The goal was just Deeney’s fourth Premier League strike this season, and first since notching against Bournemouth at the start of October.

And his boss, Walter Mazzarri, was pleased to see his talisman back in the goals, with the penalty earning his side a point against struggling Crystal Palace.

“I am happy with the point and that Deeney scored his 100th goal,” said the Italian. “It seemed that it had been a heavy weight he was carrying on his back. Now this is over.”

Captain Mark Noble insists it was imperative West Ham went into Christmas on the front foot – despite not playing their best football of the season.

The Hammers picked up victories over Burnley and Hull prior to the festivities, backing up a solid draw at Liverpool, a huge improvement to their wretched start to the season.

Sitting just five points clear of relegation danger before the Boxing Day fixtures, Slaven Bilic’s side have crashed back to Earth in their new London Stadium home, a huge backwards step from a season that saw them qualify for the Europa League.

But Noble feels that, despite continuing to play far from their best, a corner has finally been turned, insisting performances will come to the fore if results keep heading in the right direction.

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“It has been a massive week for the club getting seven points. We have not played well in the two home games and I will be the first to say thatm” he said.

“But if you are not going to play well, the key is to win. We could have played Burnley and Hull off the park and not come away with anything. That happened to us earlier in the season and not had the greatest results.

“With the position we were in the key for us was to forget about the performance and get a result. We have been lucky but the seven points are massive.

“All the games are tough in this league because all the teams can now bring in good players. We know that Swansea away is going to be tough, but I am hoping we can carry on our winning streak.”

There is no Premier League squad better equipped to deal with the hectic schedule of fixtures over the festive period than Liverpool, that’s according to James Milner.

The Reds face the unenviable task of playing three games in six days – squaring off with Stoke City on December 27, hosting Manchester City on December 31 and then travelling to Sunderland for January 2.

Milner knows how much the next week can affect the shape of the Premier League table but is convinced Liverpool have the fitness within their ranks to thrive on the challenge.

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And the vice-captain is keen to capitalise on the back-to-back-to-back nature of the matches.

“Christmas is such a critical time,” said Milner. “It can work both ways – if you’ve lost, you’ve got a chance to put it right quickly, and if you’re coming off a win then you want to keep that momentum going so hopefully we can keep doing that.

“You look at the league table now and you look at it the first week in January [then] it’ll look completely different with a few different results, so we have to make sure we’re on our game and keep this momentum going.

“It’s such a critical time of the year every year, it’s so important. Hopefully we get a few of the boys back as well who are injured, getting closer, and keep everyone fit.

“The schedule we’ve got is pretty ridiculous – you expect games thick and fast this time of year, but we have to touch wood there and hope we get a bit of luck with injuries because obviously it’s going to be a big hit. We have to make sure we’re ready.

“I think we’re arguably up there with the fittest squads in the league, so if anyone can deal with that load, we can.”

Surrendering a 2-0 lead to the Premier League champions was a harsh way to go into the Christmas period for Stoke City, but captain Ryan Shawcross is adamant his side have brushed off the disappointment.

Two goals in 16 minutes cost the Potters all three points against Leicester City on December 17, a victory that would have seen them sit in the top half come the festivities.

And with back-to-back away games at Liverpool and Chelsea to come before the year is out, it may be an opportunity Mark Hughes’ charges are be left to rue.

But Shawcross insists the feelings of the draw have quickly passed, eyeing up a swift return to form with the mood in the camp still impressively high.

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“We are in a decent place at the moment, and we will hopefully be able to use that to our advantage over the coming week or so,” he said.

“I know that some supporters got caught up in the emotions of not seeing out the game against Leicester last time out, but as players we have to keep ourselves on a level base.

“Yes, it was frustrating not to have won the game but we won’t allow what happened towards the end to affect us moving forward.

“When we win we quickly move on from it and start looking towards the next match and when we lose, we address things and move on from that too.”

Tottenham have the best full-back pairing in the Premier League in Danny Rose and Kyle Walker according to former England defender Jonathan Woodgate.

The 36-year-old Woodgate spent three years at White Hart Lane as both Walker and Rose were coming through the ranks after signing from Sheffield United and Leeds respectively.

And with the duo now established as first choice for England and Tottenham, Woodgate believes that Mauricio Pochettino has the leading full-back pairing in the country.

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He said: “As a pair, right-back and left-back, I can’t think of a better partnership than Kyle Walker and Danny Rose in the Premier League at the moment, without doubt.

“They are the best around. I can see them both playing for England for a long time to come.

“It shows how well Tottenham have bought, going back a few years to when the policy was to buy young, English players and both Danny and Kyle were part of that, bought from Leeds and Sheffield United respectively.

“Look at how good these players are now. They are so quick. They are up and down, box to box. They are sharp into the tackle, constantly at opponents and aggressive.

“In terms of age, they are both reaching their peaks as well. As I said, I don’t think you’ll find a better pairing.

“Danny was always quality in training. Even as a youngster, he’d get stuck in, he didn’t care if he kicked someone! That’s what I liked about him, that mentality. He’s gone from strength to strength in that position.”

Eden Hazard has been back to his terrorising best this term for Chelsea, and the 25-year-old is hoping he can inspire the next generation of world beaters in his native Belgium.

In Chelsea’s last game before Christmas against Crystal Palace, the 76-cap international completed ten more passes in the attacking third than anyone else on the pitch – with 24 successful out of 28 attempts – and also beat all five of the players he took on.

And while he learned his attacking style of play from watching the likes of Ronaldinho and Robinho as a youngster, Hazard wants his rediscovery of form to encourage young Belgians to play the same way.

“It is natural, I play with instinct,” he said. “I don’t think about I need to do this or I need to do that.

“Once I have the chance to do something, it is instinct it depends on – sometimes I dribble, sometimes I pass the ball.

“It is my way to play. I like to create some problems in the other defence. I like to touch the ball, I like to try to do something and sometimes I do, sometimes not.

“When we were young we watched a lot of video on YouTube and we wanted to watch some clips of Ronaldinho, Robinho, players like that because they liked to dribble, and we wanted to do this.

“Now in the young teams in Belgium, they watch the professionals and we have players like me, Dries Martens who plays for Napoli, Kevin De Bruyne – a lot of small guys with technical ability and we try to teach them this.

“It is like Barcelona, the professional team plays one way and all the youth teams they play the same way.

“So in Belgium it is the same, in the young teams in Belgium we try to do the same as the professionals so we like to have the ball to dribble, we teach them that.”

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has been a key figure in Southampton’s strong defensive showings this year but the Dane insists the real credit must go to the fans.

Saints have only lost once at home all season in all competitions and that was against league leaders Chelsea.

But Virgil van Dijk and holding midfielder Hojbjerg have been two defensive lynchpins for Claude Puel’s side who welcome Spurs on Wednesday night to St Mary’s.

Saints are looking to extend their unbeaten run to four matches and Hojbjerg is confident the partisan home crowd will make the difference once again.

“We saw at Bournemouth how they helped us and how they made us feel at home,” said Hojbjerg.

“When the fans are there, when they give an effort we do also, and this is one thing that goes all together.

“We work and try to do our best and when the fans also do that it’s difficult to play against Southampton.

“It’s important to have clean sheets and stand good in the positions, with organisation then the rest will come because we have talent and quality.

“We need to keep going step by step. The next step is Tottenham and we are looking forward to that.

“We need to look at our game and how we can hit them and we will take it 100%.”