I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Arsenal do not have to worry about Jose Mourinho and Chelsea as a Premier League title rival anymore this season, even though the 15 points that separate us and them at the minute is not insurmountable, the fact that there are also 13 other clubs for Chelsea to get past first makes us pretty safe.
In fact I would even go so far as to say that there are only two realistic rivals to the Gunners, assuming of course that an injury crisis or loss of form does not derail our own title challenge. Of those two, I am still not very convinced by Man United under Louis van Gaal, but you cannot ignore the fact that they do keep getting the results.
Having said that, I think most people would agree that Man City is the club to worry about and there is a crucial clash between the top two coming up next month. Looking at the fixtures though, you would have to say that the way they have been arranged for live TV games, coupled with Man City having an extra game in the Capital One cup to worry about, could give the Gunners an advantage.
We do have a Champions League game against Dinamo Zagreb on the Tuesday after the international break but it is at home and we do play on the Saturday beforehand. Man City have it tougher because they travel to Juventus on the Wednesday and then face an inform Southampton the following Saturday.
Then they have the league cup game against Hull City on the Tuesday after and Hull could do us a huge favour by taking that to extra time as it has to be decided on the night.They then have to get ready for the always tiring trip to Stoke and the TV folk have done us a favour here by giving their weary legs an early Saturday start before their final UCL game the next Tuesday.
Arsenal have an away game against Olympiacos to worry about but we have two good looking games either side of it, with Sunderland the Saturday before and Aston Villa on the Sunday after. So for once it appears that the scheduling has worked in our favour for a change. Can we make the most of it?