December hasn’t been kind to Arsenal as usual with the loss to Man United and the draws with West Ham, Southampton and Liverpool, but going forward in the next six weeks we have great chances of doing our customary winning run and ensuring our place in the Top Four at the end of the season.
Tottenham beating Burnley has not been that bad for us as they are only ahead of us on goal difference with Liverpool just one point further forward in fourth, and we can easily take heart from our brilliant attacking performance against Liverpool. We now have a bit of an easier fixture list ahead of us, starting off with Crystal Palace on the 28th and quickly followed by West Brom away on New Years Eve. Both of these are very winnable if we have now discovered our scoring boots.
Three days later we welcome Chelsea to the Emirates which is not a place they like to visit and our home record can only give us confidence. Then we can rotate for the FA Cup and Caraboa Cup games against Nottm Forest and Chelsea, so most of our first team will be well rested for at least 10 days when we go and visit Bournemouth on the 14th of January.
A week later we have Palace again back at the Emirates, and there are no more League games until the 30th of Jan when we visit lowly Swansea and then a 5-day rest before Everton come to our home. This is an excellent rn of fixtures to give us a boost in our race for second.
With the exception of Chelsea, those seven games could be our springboard to ascertain whether we are definitely going to be in the Champions League next season. I believe we can get 19 out of those 21 points and progress in the FA Cup as well. I’m not so sure about beating Chelsea in the semis of the League Cup, but our reserves are certainly good enough to tire out their team in the gruelling weeks ahead.
What do you think?
Sam P