He will not be surprised if the frantic programme counts against his own team, Manchester United and Liverpool.

‘‘I think all the foreigners think it’s very strange to play so many games over Christmas,’’ he said.

‘‘For me, Christmas is a very big tradition.

‘‘You have to respect the country that you come to. That is the tradition here. But I am talking as a human.

‘‘If you talk as a footballer - and I think Tony Adams has said it before - when you come to the Champions League in February and March you have not had any rest but everybody else has.

‘‘We play a lot over Christmas. But the other countries don’t, so then it is not equal. Maybe that is something they should think about.’’

The Swede’s immediate priority, however, is to help his side overcome the challenge from their Division One opponents at Vicarage Road.

Confidence is high in the Arsenal camp after their holiday programme saw them defeat Liverpool, Chelsea and Middlesbrough before the game at Leicester was called off.

Watford manager Gianluca Vialli will be without midfielder Micah Hyde, who is suspended, while former Gunners star Stephen Hughes is unlikely to recover from a groin injury.

Wimbledon and Middlesbrough meet for the fifth time in the FA Cup, and all of the previous four ties have gone to replays.

But Steve McClaren’s Premiership side would arguably be happy enough to take the Dons back to the Riverside Stadium after twice seeing their cup hopes dashed by the south Londoners last season.

Middlesbrough ended a run of four successive defeats on New Year’s Day when they beat Everton, and England defender Gareth Southgate believes they have turned the corner.

‘‘We think we have given some decent performances and against Arsenal and Manchester United we haven’t got the reward we deserved,’’ he said.

‘‘The Everton game wasn’t great for the fans, other than we won the game. You could sense there was tension among the supporters.

‘‘But that win makes the league table look a bit healthier, and it’s the first step on another run.’’

Middlesbrough will again be without influential defender Ugo Ehiogu because of a groin strain, while there is a doubt over French full-back Franck Queudrue, who was concussed in Tuesday’s game.

Fulham boss Jean Tigana has a few striking problems to contend with as he prepares his side for a tough test at last year’s shock semi-finalists Wycombe.

Their lack of firepower up front was in evidence at Pride Park on Wednesday when they needed an own goal from home defender Horacio Carbonari to edge past lacklustre Derby.

Record signing Steve Marlet made his first start for two months after recovering from a knee injury but despite getting into a handful of scoring positions the Frenchman looked well short of match fitness.

Louis Saha is still struggling to recreate the form which swept him to the top of last season’s Division One scoring charts and he failed to add to his miserable tally of one goal in four months when he fluffed a simple chance at the death.

Luis Boa Morte, who missed the Derby game with a strained hamstring, should be fit to play against Wycombe and could replace Marlet. But Tigana may opt to stick with the restructured line-up in which young central defender Zat Knight proved outstanding at Pride Park.

Fulham’s Irish international Steve Finnan was grateful his side could go into the Wycombe game with confidence after levering their way back into the top half of the Premiership table.

Finnan said: ‘‘It was unfortunate for them to score an own goal, but we had other chances to win the game even though they managed to scare us once or twice themselves.

‘‘I crossed the ball in, and if the Derby player Carbonari had left it Louis Saha was always going to score from that distance. Now we can start to look up again after this result.’’