Arsenal may have managed to keep the damage done by the traditionally negative month of November to a minimum, but so far December is not exactly proving to be a festive time of the year for us Gooners. What Arsene Wenger and the players must do now is to see out the rest of the month without any more slip ups and the forthcoming fixtures suggest that we should be able to do that.
Even if we do manage to win the next two Premier League games, at home to West Brom on Boxing Day and then Crystal Palace on new years day, I do not expect us to make up any ground on the league leaders, as Chelsea also have two very winnable home games against Bournemouth and Stoke City.
After that, however, things could get interesting and Arsenal fans will be hoping that January is a much better month for us. For one thing we should be able to welcome back the likes of Mustafi, Mertesacker, Ramsey and Welbeck. For another the fixtures that the current leaders have start to look tougher.
We really need Chelsea to slip up and hopefully one setback will lead to another, as it tends to do. Chelsea’s second match of 2017 is away to our north London rivals so Arsenal fans will be hoping that Tottenham can at least stop Antonio Conte’s team from winning.
January also sees them travel to Leicester and Liverpool so we can reasonably hope for them to drop some points and that could be crucial ahead of our trip to Stamford Bridge at the start of February. That match, if January goes as we hope, could be huge in the context of the season and any hopes of Arsenal getting our hands on the EPL trophy.
January also sees us enter the FA cup with hopefully a 4th round game after the 3rd round trip top Preston, so will the start of 2017 see our chances of a trophy get stronger or fall away altogether do you think?
Bob.